Sunrise
by regertz
Summary: -Buffy/Cicely has 12 hours to win back Spike's love and trust after betraying him...Again  -No, that is not a typo...Yes, a little Cicelyverse tribute to the FW Murnau film...


Sunrise...

Summary: Buffy has 12 hours to win back Spike's love and trust after betraying him...

(nope that's not a typo...And yes, a little tribute to the FW Murnau film...)

Before, during, and after the "Hells Bells" episode...

Part I...

I never meant to hurt him...

Never...

Even, when Riley came back...And showed me what my life was becoming...

In comparison to his...

Even then...I was still ready to try...

Or, to be honest...To start trying...

To begin at the beginning...

I didn't know someone else had her own plans for us...For him...

How could I know I had such a good friend?...Looking out for me...

But I was still ready...To try...

Buffy enters Spike's ruined crypt...After dodging a couple of supremely annoyed cemetery

groundspeople previously engaged in surveying the "vandals" wreckage...

Lugging a large box...

Dawn following reluctantly...

"Wow..." Dawn looks around at the shattered room...Contents of an occasional ancient coffin or

two spilling into the lair...

Major renovation mode...

Buffy frowns, dropping the box...

"Where the heck is he?...Spike?" she yells...

Maybe he's realized your insane love affair is hopeless and he's done the noble thing, Dawn

brightly notes...Clearly hopeful...

She is still trying to recover from Buffy's incredible pronouncement of the previous evening,

after Riley and spouse's departure...

That previous night she'd been watching Buffy pace the living room for the best part of an

hour...When her sister had suddenly stopped and begun looking for things they could spare for

the Blonde One...

Who would require new furnishings...And probably new digs...

"I thought you were mad at Spike..." Dawn had looked at her...

Well...Yeah...But...He did help us out...Took care of you...she reminded Dawn...

Didn't kill me when I was sleeping in his crypt and he could have transformed me and had me

forever...Unless later my demon made like Dru and left him...she did not say...

We should try to help him, I think...Not just abandon him now that the goings getting a little

tougher...she had noted...

He needs us...Obviously, considering his little slide backwards with those damned eggs...

And of course I did blast his only home to rubble...she had further noted...

Well...Dawn had hesitated...That's a nice sentiment...Very unSlayerishly sympathetic...

But, still we...

"I think I'm in love with William..." Buffy had blurted...

Huh?...Dawn had stared...

In...?

Not with Spike, Buffy hastily noted...Not with a killer demon...

William...Whatever's left of the human who been reaching out to us from within him...

"In...?" A blank-eyed Dawn was still stuck...

She'd noticed Buf's enthusiasm for her nightly patrols with the Blonde One...

Always bringing a story he'd told her or some sharp remark he'd made back with her...

But...While it had caused her to wonder a bit...She wasn't quite ready to hear this...

Fortunately for Dawn she was not old enough that Buffy felt safe confiding other aspects of the

affair...

Not that she didn't suspect...Immediately...On her sis' announcement...But, so long as Buffy

didn't admit to it...Dawn could still pretend this was all some silly little infatuation...

Based on the Slayer's natural sympathy for a condemned one who'd been trying so hard over the

last year to earn her trust...Aggravated by her deep depression and sense of alienation...

Not even mentioning Angel's rather crummy behavior...

No, it made perfect sense that vulnerable sis would fall a bit for her undead devoted one...Her

admittedly very sexy and charming undead devoted one...And, so long as Buffy said no

more...Please...It could all be dismissed as a perfectly natural little "crush"...

Which scene had led them to their present situation...

Buffy arguing...Since the moment of her announcement to the present moment in the crypt...To

herself as much as Dawn...That to abandon William now...Would be horrible...Cruel...

Now when the chip was rendering him vulnerable and when he seemed to be fighting to free

himself of Spike and the past...

And all for her sake...For the love of Buffy Summers...

That is...she had continued to Dawn, the surrounding house, and finally the general outdoors as

they strolled to his cemetery...Until I consult Giles...And maybe Tara...And maybe...

Just for research purposes alone, mind you...

Willow...

And tear through some of the Magic Box's books on vamp redemption and resurrection...

Course, she thought...It might be wise to minimize the passionate love making...Not to mention

the beatings...For a bit...she did not say...

Hmmn...Dawn had thought...

Strange that she never got like this with the Brooding One...

Patched up the old curse and that was that...

Did she sense somehow even then that it wasn't worth the effort?...That Broodo wasn't looking

at her...Not really...

Just at her blonde, Darla-like hair...

Buffy hollers as she wanders through the ruins... "Spike...!"

Where the hell...?

"Buffy...?" Dawn calls, looking at the cardboard "gravestone" Spike had propped up near the

battered remains of his favorite slab...

She hurries over and they stare...

"Gentle friend...Here lies the second grave of William Soames Walthrop...

Well, he tried..."

Uh-oh...Dawn looks at Buffy...

"William!"...Buffy screams...

...Soames Walthrop...?...Nice ring, she thinks...

He might have told me his name before this...

Course...we were pretty busy whenever we got together...

Only time for one conversation to date...And a brief one at that...

And...she thought guiltily...

I never did ask...

Nice though...William Soames Walthrop...

Hmmn...He died in London, he told me that much...

I wonder if Willow could look him up...In 1880 records...

Ulp... "Second grave"...? She looked at Dawn...

No ashes that I can see...Dawn reported...

Phew...

Well...

It seemed for the best, really...

To Dawny anyway...Much as she does like him...

And impressive...

Spike actually being big enough to make the break...

Twice...Though I refrained from mentioning my time as "Invisible Slut-Girl"...

I pretended to agree...Yep, all for the best...

But...Damnit...

Just when I was ready to move to the next stage...

Trying to help...The one I...Ummn, well...

Care for...

A photo shop...Late that night...

With a solitary remaining customer...

"Pretty girl..." the clerk nodded at Spike...As a couple of large prints came out of the machine...

Buffy...And Spike...Together, strolling in daylight...At shops in Sunnydale...By cafes...By Joyce's

museum...Smiling...

Nobody special...Just a happy couple strolling around...Maybe on vacation...

Two happy humans...In love...

Miracle of modern digital photography, Spike thought ruefully...

But, what the hell...She'd said it was over...And this time...

This time he believed her...

Even if Anya were willing to explain things regarding his little eggs deal...

So...What did it matter if he chose to make a few false memories...Of a life...And love...she'd

never even tried to share with him...

Yeah...he smiled at the clerk...

She is a pretty girl...

Another customer entered...

By coincidence on a similar mission...Hoping to preserve and perhaps, enhance a few precious

memories...

Tara...

"Spike?..." the Wiccan stared at him...

What are you doing here?...

She caught sight of the photos...Which he scooped up desparately...

Oh...

She looked at his rather sheepishly defiant face...

Poor guy...

"Nice pictures..." she noted...

Pictures?...he said pleasantly...

She let him be...But watched him as he left, clutching his phony memories...

Poor, poor guy...

I didn't hear a word from him after that...Tara kept mum about seeing him at the photo shop until

much later...

He didn't even show up during my Patrols...

I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss him and his stupid comments on the world in general...Or that I

didn't worry a little...

But...

He was at Anya and Xander's wedding of course...

Thank God...I'd begun to think...Maybe...

But there he was...

Trying to be offhand about it...

Dawn waiting for the sky to fall...But desparate to avoid bringing up what she had learned...

To my shock, he was kind...

In spite of himself, even his attempts to twit me about the whole thing were half-hearted...

But I didn't want a scene either...

And I had no intention of asking him why he'd left without a word...

Though his choice of companion to bring along was rather infuriating...

Human...Though incredibly skanky...

Things were going off well...Incredibly well...

Who could've believed it...Xander and Anya almost safely married and then to leave for their

honeymoon at last...

Guest disruptions held to the barest minimum...So far...

No last minute reversion on Anya's part...Despite a teasing offer from her old boss...

Xander's predictable attack of cold feet...Not materializing...So far...

Snide comments by his family over his choice of...Willow...As "Best Friend..." successfully

ignored...

And, I'm managing reasonably well, Buffy thinks...rather pleased...

She grins over at Willow, beaming beside Tara...Nothing settled, of course...

But extremely...Hopeful...

Just one fly in the ointment...Spike, naturally...

Why they had had to invite him...Damn...

But more troubling...The two real sources of annoyance...

Firstly...

He hadn't told her where he'd got off to...Nor asked if she'd come by to see him...

Geesh...I knew he'd be mad after the little crypt trashing and the minor...well, major punching

round...But...I had reason to be furious with him...

And he was the one who left without a word, she thinks...

And secondly...

Of all things to invite...A human date...

Clearly just to get my goat...

And to top that off...Anya had invited...Halfreck...

The killer vengeance demon...

I dunno know but it seems to me that nearly causing the death of one's fiancee is cause enough to

retract a wedding invite...

But...It's Anya's wedding...

Like Hell will there be demons at my wedding...

Unless of course I choose to rub Spike's face in it...Which, after his running out on me...

Oh, why did he leave like that?...she thinks...

Without even a sarcastic word...

Halfreck, having suddenly decided that fruit punch was a life-sustaining nutrient, and slipping

over before Buffy could confront her...The Slayer had turned to see Spike on his way out...

He gave his kind fairwell...Thought it best if they left early...Given circumstances and all...

Buffy smiling wryly at his inability to carry through his attempts to hurt her...

But wincing all the more inside...

His kind human nature and generous heart breaking through more than ever...

Damn him...

And still no explanation for his abrupt departure...

Well, ok...she thought...His home was destroyed...

Still...He coulda left me a note...

From the punch table, Halfreck watched them...Attentively...

Dawn caught him at the door as he and a rather puzzled date were leaving...

"Where were you the other day?...We came over..."

My business, Miss Nibs...he looked at her briefly...Staring over at Buffy one last time...

And left...

I thought he was dealing...Dealing rather...Well, nobly...Buffy thinks...But, if he won't tell even

Dawn what's up...

Actually this is being childish...

It is not...Dealing...

As I am dealing...

Unless...He's trying to cover for me still...

No...He is just being childish...

And he started this...er...Well, he wasn't there when I came...

Wish we could've talked...But I've no intention of begging him to let me apologize...

Even if I did know...And have known since the day before yesterday that his little eggs deal

wasn't done with ill intent...In his heart of hearts, anyway...If he had a heart of hearts...or even

just one small substandard heart...That he was trying, offering the eggs for sale as potent magic

aids, via Anya...To get the cash he'd promised me...

Which Anya had filled me in on, just a bit late...Keeping mum at his insistence...

Afraid I'd nix the deal...Refuse to accept his help...

So...He'd give the cash to Anya and Xander...Part as wedding gift...

Part to be given by them to me...

But Anya couldn't bear not telling me...

In her current mood, every romance must be given a fair chance...

I love Anya dearly...Buffy thinks...

Never more than when she screws up like this...

Urghh, that Halfreck, looking...Urghh...From what I saw of her before she ran...

Hmmn...Kinda like Blondie's date, actually...Just a leetle more with the veins and all...

But, maybe that look's attractive to him...

Funny if I was his idea of a charity case...

She remembers a few days before...When in the crypt, he lay, watching her, stroking her hair,

gentle as a lamb, whispering to her that in all his existence...she was the most...

That for her...He'd risk ...Mortality...

Nah, definitely not a charity case...she notes...

Rather happily...

Of course...she thinks...Even more happily...

I do have good reason to kill his date...Er, end his date, I mean...

A human...Clueless, no doubt...

In danger...

I should really go and stop them...Right now...

Save the potential victim of Will the Bloody like a good Slayer ought...

No...she sighs...Not the adult way to deal...

And look, Xander's still not out yet...

Hmmn...She glared at the punch-supplied, returning Halfreck...Who smiled back politely...And

nervously...Dashing to her chair and D'Hoffryn's protection...

After what she pulled at the house...Whether or not she did it for "poor lil' abandoned Dawny" or

no...

Still...Anya...Xander...Wedding...

Not now...Not here...

And so it went...

But the kindness...Insisting on leaving early...To avoid spoiling the first joyful day in my life in

much too long...

God damn him and his sweet nature...More human every time I see him...

He was so easy to deal with before the damned chip...

Now...He is dangerous...

But why did he leave the old crypt without saying anything?...Where did he go?...

Where the hell did he find that slut?...And...

Why didn't he want to stay and talk?...And dance with me at the reception?...

It might have ended there...

The wedding soon taking a drastic lurch for the worse...

Groom gone...And not to the lil' boys room...

This was a job...Requiring the Slayer's services...Along with several of Anya's "circus friends"...

I should hang a shingle...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

Major distractions for weddings, bar-mitvahs, etc a specialty...

Until real disaster broke loose...

Courtesy Mr. Harris and a no limit bar...

Hmmn...He couldn't finance a college education for our Xander but he can keep this limitless

flow of booze going?...

Then...The ultimate...

Xander...Oh...

Hell, no one better able than me to understand hesitation at demon-human mating...But...Why do

this now?...

You've been telling us for months how wonderful it was...Not a care...Demonic past-wise,

anyway...In the world...

And why do it to poor sweet Anya...Human, I remind you, Big Brother, Anya...

So much for my first joyous day in over a year...

But Dawn, whatever her fears of this insane relationship of her sis'...Was a determined and

practical...Romantic...

And sought more info...From the horse's mouth...

After poor Anya was somewhat settled of course...

She might have lost one chance to get Spike to tell her his new digs location...But she had other

sources of info...

Dawn'd had an instinctive feeling Halfreck could find Spike for her...And that she might be

willing to do it...

In exchange for what she could provide regarding info on Xander's little walk and Anya's current

status...

Though extremely disappointed that Dawn did not want some fierce and horrible creature or

some hideous fate to befall Xander...Anya being off limits to her as D'Hoffryn's personal

concern...Halfreck agreed to "find Spike" for her...

Dawn was hesitant, fearing a catch...But Halfreck assured her it would be without

consequence...To anyone...

Besides...

She had her own interests in William...she smiled...

A slight problem with her sister's chemically-induced psychosis postponed her follow-up

meeting with the "justice" demon for a day...But Halfreck was surprisingly patient and

understanding...

But then she'd probably watched the whole thing with glee from demonland...Dawn noted to

herself, frowning...

Whacked-out Buffy ready to kill us all...

Which I guess didn't really startle the others all that much, Dawn thought...After her "Touch

Dawny and die" mode last summer...

The demon appeared in the Summers' front yard at Dawn's call...Made after a still very

embarassed Buffy had left for her day shift at Doublemeat Palace...

Well, at least Anya doesn't seem to be with her...Dawn noted...

And she had the promised answer...

Though Dawn couldn't help wondering about the demon's interest in..."William"...?

How the hell did she know Spike?...

Well, probably best not to know...

The Magic Box...?...Dawn thought as she unlocked the shuttered store door with Buffy's spare

key...

"You're living in the Magic Box?..." Dawn confronted a startled Spike, in process of organizing

his living space in the basement...

Thankfully, minus human skank date...

A date who'd had a really nice time, the girl'd informed him the morning after...With surprising

shyness...

Although she regretted missing the reception...

She hoped he'd...Call...

A temporary thing...Spike explained to Dawn...

"Anya has a generous heart..." Spike notes...Smiling at the Nibs...

And felt bad...Having been the one to suggest I steal the eggs from their demon mum and keep

them...

Poor Anya...Dawn loses her focus a mo...

Oh...God...Spike rolls his eyes...First Anya, now the Nibs...

As he pats the sobbing Dawn...Who moves to his shoulder...

Must be my Victorian gentleman's air...Invites this sort of unburdening...he thinks...

He tried to think of something...Comforting...

"So...Harris actually walked..." Brightly...

I knew that idiot couldn't handle this...he told her...

Should've stayed and held him up until it was over...

Anya pounding him, I mean...he grins...

"Spike...Anya's not happy with this..." Dawn frowns at him...

I'd guess that was an understatement on the order of... "Buffy?...Ummn...She's away for the

summer?..." he smiles...

She glares...

God, artificial or no, she is Buffy's sis...he thinks, admiringly...

"So...Where were you?..." she asks the Spiked One...Again...

Who stares at her...

Where was I?...

"We...Buffy and I...Lugged a whole lot of stuff to your old place the other day...You weren't

there..."

Gone...Vamoosed...

He stares at her...Buffy wanted to know...?

After she told me...? he thought...

A door slam...

"Dawn!..."

"Buffy?..."

"You let that thing Halfreck have a crack at you?...Again?..."

How?...Dawn stares...

Willow saw you talking with her in the yard...Buffy notes grimly...

Ummn...Hello, William...Buffy turns to Spike...

"Sorry to hear about your little mental condition, Slayer..." he looks at her...

She glares...

"How's Harris...?"

Turned paler than me I understand...Spike grins at Dawn...

"We'll...Deal..." Buffy looks at him...And around him..

So...Eat your date yet?...

He gave her an indignant look...

"Went home...Intact..."

Said she'd had a great time...

"Probably lying...She had the 'liar look' to her..." Buffy notes...

Buffy...?...Dawn lookes at her...

Whoa...There is definitely...A "thing" between them...

Despite a sensible healthy fear and dread...She can't help liking the idea...

Spike is so sexy...And romantic...And not a Brooder...At least not beyond his occassional scowl...

She moves in a bit...

"Sis was hurt, Will..." she whispers...

I mean...When you left...Not saying anything...

Well-intentioned but loud enough to be heard...

Buffy rolls her eyes...

You were...Hurt?...Spike looks at Buffy...

You?...

He blinks...And in a angry, tense whisper...

"How the hell do you think I..."

"Will...iam...?"

Halfreck calls him over from the other side of the basement...

What the?...Dawn looks over...Buffy looks over...

"She just dropped by for a visit..." Spike frowns...

Actually...He eyes Dawn...

:"It seems you sent her..."

Buffy glares...To Dawn's surprise, Spike adds his own...

Dawn attempts a smile...Well...

"I just wanted to know where you were, Spike..."

She frowns at the demon...Who smiles back... "Hi, Dawny..." Halfreck waves...

"And I didn't tell her to go visit you..."

"Well..." he sighs, staring at Buffy... "Best to let things be, I guess..."

Hmmn...How the hell do I think he...Buffy thinks as he goes over to Halfreck...

Felt?...

Well, ok...I didn't say much while Riley was there...

I didn't stick up for him and assume he'd been doing it for my sake...

But I came back...

Damn...I came back...

Where the hell was he?...

And how the hell does Halfreck know him?...

The shop door opens...

A rather flustered Anya...And Xander...

"I...Ummn...We...Found each other..." Xander explains sheepishly as they sit...

Anya nodding happily...Very happily...Dawn notes...

Phew...Looks likely we have one problem solved at least...

Halfreck had vanished while Xander told the epic tale of lovers reuniting...

At K-mart, Aisle 14 as a matter of fact...

Halfreck wasn't feeling well, she wanted to leave...Spike explains to Anya and Xander...

She just dropped by for a mo anyway...

Buffy rather satisfied...

There's one demon who got my glare...she thinks...

But...Spike continued...She wanted to say...Thanks for a lovely time the other day...

And that she's in the area if Miss Nibs...he grins at Dawn...

"Not in this life ..." Buffy cuts in...

Dawn tries looking away...

Well...Spike notes...I'd best be getting the rest of my stuff in...

Buffy looks a tad surprised...He still has "stuff"?...I thought I blasted everything...

"Need any help?..." Xander asks reluctantly at Anya's insistent nudging...

Well, actually...

"Careful with the boxes, old pal..." Spike grins at the loaded-down Xander...

Well...Could be worse...Xander reflects as he manuevers Spike's "stuff" into the shop

basement...

Alls' ending well for us..An's stayed human...And even if Spike is now our tenant...At least

Buf's not likely to make out with him in the basement here...

Like she was back in the crypt when she was invisible...

God...A memory I would definitely like to purge...he thought...But, thank God, I had the presence

of mind not to say anything at the time...

Ok, my brain froze up and I couldn't say anything...But it still amounts to the same thing...

And the main thing...An's still human...And still loves me...

"Just one more load...If you wouldn't mind...Old pal..." Spike grins...

It being daylight still...It would spare me a few third degree burns...

And of course dear Anya is feeling so guilty...he notes...

So...Spike is staying in town...Buffy thought as she and Dawn watched a rather content Spike

directing the overburdened Xander...

For me?...Or that skank?...Or...Damn...

How the hell does Halfreck know him...?

Gotta get Anya alone...The human skank I can deal with...But a "justice" demon might be more

of an obstacle...

Well...Anya told me she wasn't sure...But thought Halfreck knew William at some point in the

past...

I wondered...Could she have more than Dawn's neglect on her mind?...

But, why would she have suddenly decided to give William grief...?

She never bothered him and Dru...

That I know of...

Of course I naturally refused to confront William about it...

Too simple a solution to just ask him...

But how could I have known?...

Still...I did suspect something...

Must have been some kind of premonition...Or, maybe, a residual memory...

But I let things slide...

Like Dawny said...It was for the best...Probably...

Even though she'd immediately changed her mind on seeing Spike...Romantic teenager winning

out over practical, concerned sis...

It was the sensible thing to do...Just let things be...

Following his advice, God...

William the Bloody, voice of moderation, reason, and good sense...

Never noticing how Halfreck had watched us both each time we were together for even an

instant...

My old friend...Looking out for me...

Just as she...Naturally...Did for Dawny...

God, what was I supposed to do?...

William was not human, however hard he had tried...And I know that he has tried...

What kind of life could we ever hope to have?...

So...I accepted things as I thought he had wanted them...

It's just, I'd thought...He might have said "Goodbye..."

But I'd be lying if I didn't admit knowing he was at Anya's shop made my heart sing...

I hadn't lost him completely...Not yet anyway...

I went on Patrol late that night...

Willow had had warning of a Umanta demon coming to Sunnydale...

Non-magics warning...Via the Internet...

Even some of Sunnydale's underworld inhabitants were nervous about this one...And deliberately

leaked the word...

A Umanta...Very bad news...

Almost invulnerable...Excepting some soft head parts around the brain...

Very big, venomous...Willing to eat anything live and moving...

Not good...

Who else showed up but my hero...With a few other clueless human bystanders...

He was following me...I'm sure of it...

Unlike a certain LA type who didn't even bother to check on me when Glory came to town...Will

still checked on me...

My fool for love...

My sweet Will...

Damn him...

Unnh...Buffy was down...

Spike noted to the young couple watching in horror beside him that the young

lady seemed in a spot of trouble...

The hideous whatever it was...Some animal escaped from the zoo, no doubt...Seemed very likely

to kill her...

Two more people joined them...

"Spike?..." she cried...Looking over at him...

"Is she calling somebody?..." Spike looked at the others...

The Umanta lifted her with one arm above its head...

"Help!..." Buffy cried...Looking down and over at him...

"Maybe we should do something..." Spike turned to the two men in the small

group...

Ummn...They looked at each other...

"Don't get mixed up in this, Freddy..." one of the ladies in the group turned

to her mate...

The Umanta tossed her down with a thud and closed in...She hopped up...And

kicked it back...

She's ok...The other guy noted...Lets go..

.

All but Spike began hastily leaving...

The demon charged her and smashed her back into a tree...

She staggered to her feet...The Umanta pausing to clear its windpipe...

Disgusting, Spike noted...

"Spike?...You son of a...!"

Hey, innocent bystander here, lady...he called...

No need to insult poor Dru...She was a very nice human being, you know...

"I could call 911 for you?...As a concerned fellow Sunnydaler...?"

At that it'd be more than the others did for me, she noted to herself...

She smashed the Umanta back...It staggered a bit...And fired venom at her,

barely missing...

Nice dodge, girl...he thought...

She kicked the demon in the face and it went down...

"Besides, I don't work for the firm anymore, remember..." he continued...

In fact, you people almost never paid me as it was...he noted...

"You worthless..." she turned back to look at him...

"Miss Summers...Look out..." he called back pleasantly...Whipping out a cell

phone as she hopped back from the charging demon...

"Hello Police...I'd like to report an emergency...A woman is being killed by a

hideous..."

Yes...I'll hold...

"Spike?..."

What?...He looked up from the phone...

"Look out!..."

Oops...The Umanta had caught his scent as well and was now closer...

"Great..." he yelled at her...Dodging...

Always happens...

He smashed at the Umanta who staggered, reared up, and charged him...

"Why I should have to still keep putting my precious ass on the line for you,

God...I'll never know..." he groused...Shoving a broken tree branch into the

demon's throat...

It stood, gasping, clawing at its throat...

Buffy hopped over and stabbed it through the thin brain membrane, following

Willow's instructions...

It collapsed...

They stood by each other, watching the Umanta cough out its last...

"So...How've you been?..." Buffy asked...Breathing hard...

The shop basement working out for you?...

Ok...I overdid it with the cry for "Help!..."

He knew I was deliberately holding back...And enjoyed baiting me...

But...I really did need help at the end...

And he came through...As always...

Oh, God...

Was there ever a Slayer so fucked up?...

Part II...

Was ever a vampire so fucked up?...

After he'd left Buffy and her dead Umanta...Spike wandered the Sunnydale streets...

I should have left...Damn her...I should left...

Hell, I should've let the Umanta have her...

To pull an act like that...After telling me we were through...

As if we ever were...

A large building loomed...He stared...

Well...he sighed...

First time for everything...

"All right..." he said...Staring at the large statute...

I've come...You know bloody well why...

The small, young blonde man paused and eyed the candles at the statue's base...He looked

around the church...No one but an elderly man far in back, praying or more likely, sleeping as he

knelt...And a veiled nun, a few pews behind him...Fingering her beads and clearly not interested

in him...

He placed a few coins in the collection bin underneath the candles and quietly lit one...

"You know..." he whispered to the statue...

"My mum spent a fortune in places like this...For candles, the poor box, the whole

shebang...Money a servingwoman, trying to feed three kids and put one through Cambridge,

couldn't rightly afford..."

Not even considering my own fate...It seems to me, Lady...You and your boy have a debt to pay...

"Well, I'm here to collect...Just this one time..."

He twisted away from the statue...Neither of his two fellow churchgoers noticing or caring that

he was still standing there, whispering to a statute...

He looked back and glared at the lit candles...

She doesn't deserve this...You have no right to do this to her...he glared at the statue...

My Buffy's saved millions of your damned worthless followers...

You can't let her drown like this...She's the Slayer for your bloody boy's sake...

And all she has to help are those idiot friends...her Nibs...

Care not help...

And old Red...Who tries...But'll probably never live down being the cause of the whole mess...

Even if she pulls herself together, what's she likely to do for her?...

And then, of course...There's little old me...

The greatest burden of all...Trying to forgive herself for feeling something for me...

Ashamed of herself for caring...And I know she does...

Let me be a man for you...I asked her...A man who can protect your sister, help you...maybe

even...Change...

God knows, she wants to believe me...In her heart I know she does...

And look at all I've done to keep the faith...

Why just call me Galahad...Allowing her to save my ass...Several times...And shag me without

dropping a nasty word to her friends...

Pardonez-moi, Lady...he smiled at the statue...

Better than past performance, I suppose...he smiled bitterly...

I can get money...I told her...God, what a joke...

I'm lucky to scrape together enough to buy smokes and a blood bag...And here I am, promising

her the moon...

While she works herself to worse than death...And loses her mother's house to repair bills and

the tax man...

And my one chance to actually help her...I screw up...

"Saving her again...In my dreams..." he murmured...

But...He looked up at the face peering out from the folds of its veil...

I tried...

"You have to grant me that..." he smiled bitterly...

"I gave it a try...With Anya and those damned eggs..."

Naturally that whipped poodle Riley had to be on hand to muck things up...

And Buffy...Never considering for a moment that I might be trying...To help...

Well...Not fair to ask too much of her Slayerness...

He looked at the statue...What did we used to say?...

Holy Mary, Mother of God...

Have mercy on my beloved...

"Sometimes it's the practical that's God's best solution..." a voice told him...

The nun had come up to him and was standing by his side...

I know that voice...Spike thought vaguely...

She put a hand on him...Gently...And was gone before he could see her face clearly...

Had she run up the long aisle...Or vanished?...

"God bless you, Will..." he was sure he'd heard her say...

Smiling at him...

Drusilla...

But no scent of a vampire anywhere around him...

He came to himself there and looked around...

Had he dreamed it?...

He eyed the elderly man cautiously...Still asleep or praying in back...

No trace of a vampire...It couldn't have been Dru...

And yet...

The practical he thought...

Well, advice from the Mother of God, or human Dru's spirit, or figment of his imagination...It

had a certain appeal...

And shook him a bit out of his lethargy...

Surely he could do something...Practical...

But if it concerned money, it couldn't be his normal way...Even if Buffy believed any lie he told

about how he'd gotten it...It would do her no good to have to spend twice as much keeping out of

prison after the police took it all back...

Somehow he'd had to find...An honest way...

Not just to save the house for now...Enough to get her back in college with a chance at a

future...And enough to ease her fears for Dawn...

Not to mention enough for a good doctor to look her over and find out what the hell had

happened when Willow resurrected her...Why she kept slipping into traces, couldn't concentrate

on any serious reading, as Dawn had told him...

Why she'd become crazy enough to care...At least a little...For him...

But short of murder of demons for hire...Sort of a cut-rate Angel, actually he grinned to

himself...The "good job" options for him were limited...

And as appealing as taking some night shifts with her at Doublemeat might sound...It would not

fit the bill, much as she might appreciate the gesture...Secretly...

Somewhere in this god-forsaken town there must be a way to make money...Someone who owed

him...

Hmmn...

Well, of course he did have a job offer of sorts...Anya...Who'd had given him a new

home...Needed "experienced help"...

Indeed, Harris at least seemed to expect that he should happily pitch in...For free, out of

gratitude...

Like bloody Hell...Though it was hardly likely dear An could manage more than minimum

wage...

An idea struck him...

There were people he knew in this god-forsaken town capable of making real money...The honest

way...In a manner of speaking...

More or less...

Three people, in fact...

If they weren't such a lazy, selfishly child-brained bunch of nerds...Wasting their genius on

moronic plots to annoy Buffy and acquire toys...And now...

Guilty of murder...And God knows what else...

And probably desperately in need of a "fixer"...To sell their inventions and magics off to the

highest bidder...

Ah, the good old international arms market...A perfectly legit business so long as no US

government property or plans were sold...Though Buffy might not wholeheartedly approve...

And really those dastardly fellows needed to be watched over...And turned over to the authorities

at the proper time...When sufficient evidence to convict had been accumulated...

After a number of profitable transactions had been achieved...This time without drawing the

wrath of Captain Commando and the US government...And the proceeds safely tucked away

for distribution to Buffy and Dawn at some later date...

Heck the invisibility ray alone oughta fetch a fortune in today's arms market...Though perhaps, if

things were handled right...He could possibly render service to his adopted country as well as to

Buffy Summers...

Surely given the Initiative's ruthless behavior there were some in the government of the land of

the free who would be interested in the troika's collection of toys...And would ask few if any

questions...

Just a matter of hooking up with the right people...

Idiot boys have to still be in Sunnydale...They're sure to be caught the moment they get out of

Hellmouth magic range...And I still have a few favors to call in from old "pals"...

Time to arrange... A "meeting"...he thought...

After I caught my breath...And Spike wandered off, muttering...After checking me out to be sure

I was ok...

And I finished grousing at him to myself...

I got...The idea...

He'd be at the shop...Anya needed help...And would need someone to keep an eye on him...

And I owed Giles...Lots...

Though of course it would have to be fit around my Doublemeat and Slaying schedules...

And...Maybe I could keep some of what I earned...

Giles would wait, I was sure...Though at least I'd be sending him something...Which I stressed to

Anya when I called that night...

She was...Uncertain...Given my last period of employment at the shop...But kindly consented to

my plan...

Buffy reached the Magic Box...

Anya greeted her...Warmly, but...Cautiously...

"Well..." Buffy tries a grin...

All ready for the first afternoon...

"Ready to start payin' back all that money good ole Giles lent me..."

Not that he'd asked her for it, of course...Just...

Time to get priorities and responsibilities nailed down...

Obligations to be met...Buffy Summers the girl to say "Hi" to em...

"Hello..." A bespectacled, suit-wearing...Her jaw drops...

Spike...Greeted her pleasantly...

"Ms. Summers..." he smiles...Nodding...

Decked out in Randy suit...And glasses...

This is a joke, right?...Buffy looks at the others...

You're not going to let him work here as well...?

"Buffy...Spike needs a steady job..." Anya looks at her...

Especially after you destroyed his home...she did not say...

"We have a responsibility to encourage William's movement back towards Humanity"...Anya

notes...

And we owe him...Especially after that demon eggs fiasco...she did not say...

"Oh...And make sure you call him Mr. Walthrop if you need to use a last name..."

"It really is my own..." he smiles at her...

"Are you people crazy?..." Buffy looks at them...

It's one thing to let him hide in your basement for a while...A very little while...she pauses...

But...

Spike assumes a very slightly hurt look...

Just doing his bit...he noted...Trying to earn a honest living...

Strengthen his human ties...

Develop his relationships...She glares at him...

Why is Buffy treating him like this?...Anya nudges Xander...He was very kind to Dawn this

summer...When he had nothing to gain from it...

After she was ...Gone...

We told her how he cried for her...Helped us...

Does she expect him to stay in the cellar all day...Every day?...

Slayer-Vampire thing, honey...Xander notes...Best we keep out of it...

Oh?..Does she harbor some instinctive dislike of all demons?...Anya whispers, looking at him...

Even...Former ones...?

"So...He'll be working under me...er under my supervision..." Buffy looks at them...

Well...Actually...Buffy...

See...Anya hesitates...

He does have a lot more experience with magics and occult history than you...

You should've seen him track down the Necromance figurine we needed this morning...Anya

notes hastily...

He smiles...Pleasantly...

Two years at Cambridge University...Anya adds...

"Well...I would have graduated..." he puts in politely...Pushing up the glasses...But...

Fate can be so cruel sometimes...Anya notes sympathetically...

I should know, she paused sadly...Xander pats her...

"He's gonna supervise me...?" Buffy blinks...

Well, after all...He is full time, Buffy...Anya notes...

"And full time...Is full time..." Xander notes...

"I would say...That we'll be...Coworkers, Ms. Summers..." Spike notes pleasantly...

You look ridiculous in that suit...she tells him...

He gives a slightly hurt, sheepish look...

Actually.. Anya hesitates...

"I asked him to wear it...His other remaining set of clothes didn't set the right tone for the shop..."

And all his other clothes got blasted in his crypt by you and Riley...Anya did not say...

"Since when do you need glasses?..." Buffy glares at him...

Well...Actually Buffy...he pauses...

I've always been rather nearsighted...

Didn't she ever notice his squint?...Anya thinks...

Ok...I was glad, I admit it...

Though I honestly thought Anya was insane to let him out of the basement...

And he did look ridiculous in the Randy suit...

Well...Buffy smiled wanly...

"Where do we start?..."

I thought we might rearrange inventory this afternoon, Anya replied...

"I've gone over it with William..."

He'll tell you what I want...

He smiled...

Grrreat...Buffy smiled...

"I have climbed highest mountain...I have run...Through the fields...Only to be with you..."

Only to be with you...

Spike had suggested a little music while they worked...

She cast a sardonic grin at her "supervisor"...

"Do we have to listen to this?..." she asked...

"You're quite welcome to change it when this side is done..." Spike noted...

"Anya..."

Buffy...We don't censor our employees' taste in music...Anya looked at her...

You can change it when Spike's finished his first side...

Besides...I like U2...

Urggh...Say?...

Mr...Walthrop?...Buffy asked...

"Yes, Ms. Summers?..." he smiled...Pleasantly...

"Should you keep to the stockroom or something...In case somebody opens the door

suddenly?..."

"I'm well able to move about if the need arises..." he noted...

Just making a suggestion...Buffy replied...

Wouldn't want to see my "stuporvisor" burned to death...

We kept it up like that all afternoon...

I hafta admit William was the more "professional" of the two of us...

But it was nice...Just to be with him...And by the end of the afternoon, he'd dropped a Spike

crack or two...Mainly regarding our customers...

And it was something to see William the Bloody, friendly and conscientious shop

clerk...Beaming at customers...

I wanted to ask...But I hesitated...

No point in raking things up...

And then the afternoon was over and it was time to go home to Dawn...Night shift at dear old

DP...And Patrol...

Sunrise...

Part III...

After Mr. Walthrop had helped a rather radiant Anya and still sheepish Xander close up the shop

and dismissed his new assistant for the evening, he donned his remaining "Spike" togs and

headed out...

To call in a few debts...And arrange a "meeting"...At Willie's...

Anya, meanwhile, was having her own "meeting"...With an old friend...

She was as suspicious as Buffy regarding Halfreck's motives for hanging around town...

After all, she'd done the "hang around Sunnydale hoping for another crack at revenge" thing

herself...

Dear Haly was as always at her friend's beck and call...

"Couldn't I just strike him blind?..." Halfreck suggested, looking at a somewhat nervous

Xander...

I mean, after what he did...

"Xander was just nervous, Haly..." Anya insisted, smiling reassuringly at her beloved...

If you were human again, you'd understand...

Humans...Halfreck sighed...

"I mean..." Anya looked at the demon...

"Back when you were human...Say when you knew William...?" Innocently, not looking directly

at her...

In 1880?...Halfreck grinned at Anya...

"1880?...Wait a minute...You weren't human in 1880...?" Anya looked at her...Xander

watching...

Her eyes widened...

"You..."

Moi...Halfreck nodded...

What...? Xander looked at Anya...Who stared at him...

"She cursed William..."

What?...Xander looked at the grinning demon...

I'll never get used to those bulging veins, he noted to himself...

Thank God I never saw Anyanka...

But...Xander paused...

I thought Drusilla...

"A mere tool of Fate..." Halfreck smiled...

But...What did he do?...Anya stared at her...

"Pretty much what he's doing right now..." Halfreck noted...

He got in your Slayer's way, poor sweet fool...

In Buffy's way?...Anya blinked...Xander blinked...

"Well..." Halfreck paused... "Her name was Cicely Addams then..."

Anya told me later that night...With Xander beside her...

They couldn't contain news like this...

Halfreck cursing William Soames Walthrop...In 1880...

For my...That is, for Cicely's...Benefit...

My dear old friend...My guardian angel...

And still looking out for old Cicely...In her blonde, reincarnated form...

At her...My...Subconscious request...

We Slayers carry a lot of weight with "justice" demons, it seems...

"But what did he do to deserve...Drusilla?"...Anya looked at Halfreck...

Oh...Well, nothing really...But Cicely needed him gone...He was very poor and a very poor

poet...And, as she was the Slayer, even then...

Xander stared at Anya...Anya at him...

"You condemned him for nothing?..." Anya stared at the demon...

I'm a demon...It's what I do...Haly shrugged...

Besides...What about that poor girl, Drusilla...Did she deserve her fate?...

I thought you said you were a "justice" demon...Anya noted...

Well...Halfreck paused...

Is this... "Justice"?...Anya looked at her...

"Well my...Aren't we the self-righteous little human, now?"...Halfreck sneered...

Seems to me you had no objection to inflicting eternal suffering on human males before you met

dreamboat here...she smirked at Xander...

"You condemned William to eternal damnation...Because he wasn't a suitable mate for

Cicely...er Buffy?...Because he was a poor poet?..." Anya gasped...

Honest, honey...she looked desperately at Xander...I never did anything like that...

Just a mo, there...Halfreck raised a finger...

"Cicely wanted William gone...I just carried out her wish..."

And he was poor...and a bloody awful poet to boot...Not just a poor poet...

"Wait a minute..." Anya looked at Xander...Then back at the demon...

You're not here because of Dawn, are you?...

Halfreck rolled her eyes toward the ceiling...Well...

"Dawn was made from Buffy...So naturally as Buffy is a client...I was happy to include a service

or two for..."

"You're here to stop Buffy and William from coming together..." Anya glared at the demon...

You're still cursing William?...To keep him and Buffy apart...Keep him from winning any

chance of redemption...?

"Don't you people read fairy tales anymore?..." Halfreck frowned...

The Snow Queen, that sort of thing?...

William is trapped in Spike until Cicely...er, Buffy...Says otherwise...

What?...Xander looked at her...

He loved her...And that gives her the right to decide his fate...Halfreck noted solemnly...

What?...

"Afraid she's right, honey...That's the way D'Hoffryn works..." Anya agreed sheepishly...

Of course males have their own similar setup...It's not a sexist arrangement...she noted quickly...

And of course...It's a system I no longer approve of...And refused to take advantage of...she

pointed out...

Phew...Xander noted...

"Wait..." he looked at Halfreck...

"Do you mean Buffy could save Will...If she wants..."

She's the Slayer, isn't she?...Halfreck noted...

Well...I mean...Xander paused...

Besides the usual Slayer means...If she wanted to keep him around...

"How should I know?...I'm no student of vampires..." Halfreck groused...

Besides...It's William's soul that counts...And Buffy or Cicely or whoever she is when and if she

ever wants to help him will have to find her own way...

"It's the way we work..." she noted...

"And..." she frowned at Anya... "It's a fine system...And it works very well..." Halfreck insisted...

After all Spike's done quite well as a vampire...He'd never have earned a reputation as a human

poet...

Though I do sympathize...I rather like William myself...she grinned...

A very sweet and courageous soul buried in there yet...

But...Anya looked at Halfreck...Buffy doesn't...She couldn't...

"Cicely didn't and Buffy doesn't want him bothering her...And when I condemn someone for a

client...He stays condemned..." Halfreck smiled proudly...As befitting a true professional...

Though, of course...That doesn't mean he and I can't date...she noted...

As soon as this current nonsense between him and Buffy is settled...

Though I have to say she's a very fickle lady...Halfreck sighed...Never was able to make up her

conscious mind about him...

"She's very lucky D'Hoffryn took pity on her..." she noted...

And was rather interested in getting a Slayer in his fold...

"Though, sadly..." Haly sighed... "That hasn't worked out..."

Yet...

"Some people just have no sense of obligation...No gratitude for services rendered..." she

groused mildly...

But perhaps this time...After William's fate is settled...For good... And the time is right for Buffy

to learn what help we've been to her...

Anya smiled woodenly, nodded, and slid back to Xander...

"What do we do?..." he looked at her...Whispering...

Grab the pendant, honey...Anya hissed...

Halfreck, however, felt she'd spent enough time catching up with her old friend...And vanished...

And so she and Xander wound up on my doorstep...With quite a story to tell...

A very suspicious Warren Mears...In rather ridiculous disguise...Sat down across from the "fixer"

recommended by good ole Willie...

"Warren..." Spike grinned...

How's the girlfriend murdering business?...

Combine it with the robo-girl line yet?...Sort of your own Stepford in Sunnydale set-up?...

Sunrise...

Part IV...

So...Anya and Xander looked at me...Mutually pausing to take a breath from their tale...

I'd waved them out to the yard after they began...Not a story I wanted Dawny to hear just yet...

Me...The reincarnation of some old girl's of Spike's?...Well, William's?...

Cicely Addams...Not a familiar name to me...

And yet...

And a Slayer herself to boot...

Who'd rejected William in 1880...As a poor man...And a poor poet...

Well, he had told he was killed in 1880...

But so much for his "I've always been bad, baby"story...

Yes, of course I shook inside...And I wanted to cry...And I considered racing to the

shop...Waiting for him...

But...Even if Halfreck was being truthful...

It didn't change anything...

Much as he hated sympathizing with the Blonde One, Xander was a leetle startled at my

attitude...

No... "My God, where is he?...This is all my fault..."...Followed by a dash after him...

Just a reasonable...Well...If Halfreck wasn't lying...This is interesting...

Of course, I explained...It bothered me that some version of me might have played a small role in

his condemnation...But how did I know why this Cicely had rejected William...

Maybe it had made good sense at the time...But I refrained from mentioning that...

I know...I know...Tormenting, torturing, and condemning poor Drusilla also had seemed like a

bang-up idea to Angelis in his day...

But I had to come to grips with the whole thing...I'd just been dead, remember...

I did hope...I did that much...

Hope that maybe this meant...There might be something for us...Once I verified Halfreck's story

somehow and got some info on this "Cicely"...

But Xander...And to a lesser extent, Anya...were plainly shocked by my lack of horror and

sorrow...

Will might have been my lover...Well, my past life lover...And I might have condemned him to

his current state...

And...I might be his one hope of escape...

They at least expected a leetle more shock...

But I just pointed out that I'd have to think over what they'd told me...

"But...Buffy?..." Anya looks at the Slayer...Looking rather grimly back...

"You do realize...? Halfreck is trying to keep you from saving William..."

I mean...If he can be saved...she notes...

Xander stares a bit at Buffy...A side of her he has sensed, even experienced during her fight

with Glory...When she threatened them all over Dawn...

But...

"You won't try to help him?..." he looks at her...

"I said I'd think all this over, Xander..." Buffy replies, arms folded...

"I...I know you're his lover, Buf..." he stares at her...

"So...You were paying attention back at the crypt the other day, after all..." she notes drily...

Well...He walked on me...she continues...Maybe for the right reasons...

And... "Helping" him...Is not something I can just say yes to and hope for the best...

A voice in her head...You can't deal with this...Not now...He was wise enough to make the

break...It's best to leave things as they are...

You have to reject him...

No...No...

But...Hell, if I couldn't deal with a little thing like the class difference, poverty, and his bad

poetry...How do I deal with Spike?...

She looks at Xander...Whose natural caution on matters Spikean is being to return...

"Xander, you know I have to be careful here...And it's my decision..."

He nods, though a bit reluctant...

Anya however...Though less surprised by my attitude...She'd dealt with a lot of women

confronted with the results of their unfortunate wishes...Was somewhat...

She'd invested a bit emotionally in this little romance while waiting for Xander to come to his

senses...And was still guilt-ridden by her eggs fiasco...

"If Xander hadn't taken a chance with me...?" she pauses...

"You were human, Anya..." Buffy firmly notes...

"I was foolish to get involved with him before...And it was cruel to him..."

If I can't really help him, then it would be cruel to let him hope for something that can never be...

"Then stake him..." Anya looks at her...

I blinked...Stake him?...

"You're right...If we can't help him, it's cruel to let him hope..." she replied...

Stake...?

I...Ummn...Well...

"Help him...One way...Or the other..." Anya told me...

You owe him, Cicely...she looked at me...Calmly...

That much at least...

I bridled at that...I owe...Him?...

"Whoever Cicely was...I don't owe Spike...Or William...Anything..." I glared at her...

Look at what you'd have to overcome...The voice in my head went on...

It's too much...

Think of Dawny...You can't pour your life into helping William and care for her...

It would take everything you have left...All your heart...And in the end...

He'd be alone again...Or dead...

Or...You'd be with him...Spike's way...Transformed...

It's too much to ask...However much you may feel for him...

God cursed him...Let God come down and take care of him...

"I'll think about it...But I'll decide what to do..." I told her...

Anya glared back at me...

"I won't wait forever, Buffy..."

If you don't help him...Well...

He's our friend too, now...

And we'll help him...One way...Or the other...

They left, Xander swinging a bit back towards my pov...Or what he thought was my pov...

Cruel, you think?...

Buffy, you've been Slaying too long, you think?...And that I was overlooking Halfreck's role

in all of this...?

And maybe...Maybe overlooking Cicely's...My...Possible guilt...?

Maybe...But...

God, what was I supposed to do?...

In the end...What kind of life could we ever hope to have?...

He'd made the wisest decision...Leaving...

And much as it hurt...I had to agree it was the right one...

I let the voice in my head go on...The voice of reason, at last...

It was for the best in any case...Whatever Halfreck did...

Look at what you'd have to overcome...

Look at what you've just been through...What you're going through...

It's too much...And he was the one who made the break, after all...

Even if he seems anxious to hang around and hover...

Protectively?...

I had to smile...And cry...A little...

Angel...Gee the thought never seemed to occur to my "true love" that he could continue to keep

an eye on me...Even if sex was out of the question...

But then...I wasn't Darla's human spirit, after all...

I thought about what Anya had said...It might be true...

The right thing to do might be to end this...Give him peace at last...

There seemed to be only two ways to go...the Gift...

My Gift...A quick death...With considerably more feeling than I usually spare on my victims...

Or, leave him be...To whatever Fate awaited him...Quietly...

That's what I believed...

And yet...? Another voice was screaming at me...

No...No...

There must be a way...There must be...

Couldn't I try...Something?...At least talk to Tara...Check things out by phone with Giles?...

God I wish he was here...

Of course he'd tell me to run...Not walk...Away from this relationship...

Or...Would he?...He never tried to harm Will all that summer...He was even willing to entrust

Dawn and the others to him...

I had to learn more...Especially about...My...Ancestor?...Counterpart?...

Other self?...

For now...God cursed William, not me...Not me...

Let God help him...For now...

I'd start with Tara...

Tonight...

Hopefully I could persuade Anya to let me call Giles from the shop tomorrow...

Not that I wouldn't reimburse her...Later...

There must be a way...

And in fact...There was...

Darla...And Wolfram-Hart's little special ceremony...

I'd completely forgotten about it...

Hell, Angel only gave it to me in pieces, after all, when we met...He was too busy telling me

about his bouncing baby boy...And making it clear who the real love of his existence was...

As he kept on, praising her selflessness, that human heart that must have always hung on

somehow, somewhere, that soul that must, somewhere, be watching over their child...

His beloved...Darla...Though he may never admit it even to himself...

And the little he'd managed to tell me about the ceremony and Darla's brief time as human

was scattered among his accounts of dear Connor's birth, Darla's devotion, and her two tragic

deaths...

I was too busy trying to find a way to get out to listen closely...One more photo of Connor...One

more word of Darla praise...And...

Connor would've been my responsibility...

How could I know that Will had learned of it...That he was looking to find a way back?...

Trying to be a man again?...For me...

The Powers That Be are so droll, you know?...

And one day...Spike and I will get them locked in a room with us for ten minutes...

Maybe we'll even invite Darla, Angel, and Dru...

Well, not Dru...Her human spirit's too sweet...She'd be taking pity on them the whole time...

"Well...?" Warren looked at Spike...Frowning as they sat in their booth at Willie's...

The bar owner watching them surreptiously from his counter with ferret-like eyes...

Listening for anything...Useful...

"I hear you can "arrange" things...No questions asked..." he stared at the vampire...Then over to

Willie...Who looked away...

Spike nodded...

"And how can a vampire "arrange" anything?..." Mears glared...

I have my little ways...Spike smiled...

Connections, old pal, connections...Make the world go round...

And you boys must be in sore need of cash to support your new "fugitive" lifestyle...

"I'm out of the robot business right now..." Warren eyed him...

No more Buffies on demand...If that's what you're after here...

"Hardly, old pal..." Spike tapped him pleasantly on the arm...

In fact...If you have any other Buffy-bots lying around, I'd suggest you destroy

them...Tonight...

Cause if I find one wandering in your company...Or the boys'...

"You'll what?..." Warren grinned...

Send Buffy after me?...

Whoops...He hadn't meant to suggest such a sensible course of action...

"I know you can't hurt me as long as the chip's screwed in your skull..." he hastily noted...

So no point in threatening me...

"Whether I can or can't personally hurt you and the boys...Is debatable..." Spike smiled coldly...

But it doesn't have to have the "personal touch"...he noted...

In fact, that suggestion of yours about the Slayer...

"All right, all right..." Warren, a tad irritably...

"What are you offering...And what do you really want?..."

My services as your go-between in selling off some of your disposable toys...Spike noted...

"A fair share of the profits...Say 30%?..."

Warren glared...

"Inventions like the freeze ray and my time-warper are not... "Toys"..." he sniffed...

And 30%'s ridiculous...

Besides...he glared at the vampire...

Who would you sell things like that to?...

"My business, old pal..."

But I'm willing to negotiate...

"25% and a little...Assistance..."

"What kind of... "Assistance"...?" Warren asked...

Rather curious in spite of himself...

After all, life trapped with Andrew and Jonathan in their "safe" house was getting rather dull...

"I'm interested in a certain series of spells..." Spike paused...

Proprietary property of a certain well-known LA law firm...

Oh...? Warren eyed him...

Something...Good...? He grinned...

Something...To kill the Slayer, once and for all, maybe?...

"Lets just say...Something that would change her life...Considerably..." Spike smiled...

God, these lads are obsessed with my Buffy...he sighed inwardly...

Pity they didn't get out more before turning to murder...

"I'll talk it over with my partners..." Warren noted...

Sure you will...Spike thought...

"I'll be back...In two days...With a customer waiting to sign...And expecting a demo..."

Try not to kill anyone else before then, he eyed Mears who squirmed a bit...

Like what's her name?...

"Katrina...And it was an accident..." Warren hissed...

I understand...Spike smiled...

I've had nearly 40,000 "accidents" in my career myself...

He watched the pudgy nerd as he went out grousing...

"Wil...lie?..." he eyed the skulking bartender...

You did catch that...Didn't you?...

"He said it was an accident...He didn't say he killed her..." Willie hastily replied...

"But you're willing to swear to what he did say...?"

Yeah, yeah...

"You're a credit to loyal and patriotic bystanders everywhere, Willie..." Spike grinned, passing

over a $20...

"You gonna turn him in?..." Willie looked at Spike...

You...? William the Bloody...Champion killer...Now...Avenger of the innocent...?

He stared at the vampire..

"Buffy have you possessed?...Or cursed...Or something?..."

Or "something"...Spike nodded...

As for turning in our friend and his buds...

"All in good time..."

After they've helped me out a bit...

I reached Tara at her dorm...

Told her some of what I'd learned...

Anya'd already called her...Willow too...

And like Anya...She was surprised to hear that I wasn't more upset...Ready to run out and seek

my Will's immediate redemption...

But then she had even more cause to expect it...Knowing better than anyone just how much

William had come to mean to me...

Odd though...I sensed...Something more...

A little something...Personal in her concern for Will...

But then, she was involved in her own rather tormented love affair...

And probably sympathesized...

She was already looking into things...And would do what she could to help...

Sunrise...Part V...

What do we owe the people we love?...

Doesn't it depend?...Shouldn't it depend?...On them?...

On their actions...Their characters...

And if they are a "person" at all...

And yet...What if they aren't responsible for those actions?...

Viewed one way...Spike was and is a mass murderer...A monster and fiend...

But it wasn't a monster or a fiend who let Glory torture him...Who comforted me when Mom

died...Who tried to save me and kept Dawny safe...And who stayed...Stayed when "my hero"

was too preoccupied to even check on his dead beloved's sister...Who dreamed of saving

me...And is still trying to, judging by the little eggs fiasco...

Viewed another way...William was and is a trapped soul, fighting to stay alive in horror...

Who's had no hope expect that he might face a Slayer strong enough to release him

someday...Until he found me...And the Initiative, God bless 'em...

Like I told Xander...I had a lot to think over...

As I patrolled later that night after speaking with Tara I went over all that Anya and Xander

had told me...

Over and over again...

Me...The reincarnation of Spike's old girlfriend?...Who'd summoned a "justice" demon and

sentenced him to eternal torment?...

To get him out of her...my...hair...?

But it couldn't be true...I...Even as some nineteenth century corset-laced moron...Couldn't

have condemned Will to eternal damnation...

Over his lack of income, working-class birth, and bad poetry...?

No...No...If the story was true...There must be have been a reason...

A good reason...A sterling one, as they would have said in those days...

"You're...He was...beneath me...?" The words...The words...Popped into my head...Just like

they did the night he told me the barest details of his past

Words somehow even then I knew would tear at him...

...

I remembered...The words...And...The look on his poor sweet face when I saw him fleeing the

house...

My cousin's house...Cicely's cousin's house...In 1880...

Betrayed by the woman he loved...And whom he thought loved him...

Thought?...Knew...And with good reason...

But at this time...All I remembered were those words...And his look...

But...They weren't my words...

Not then anyway...

But how could I have known?...

And even if the reason wasn't a good one...Even if that part of me that had been Cicely had

done an evil, monstrous thing...

How could I help a monster?...

But...If William were still there...And somehow I felt he must be...How could I leave him like

this?...

If he were mentally ill, lucid at times, wouldn't someone who loved him or at least cared for

him try to reach him, seek a cure...Or get him some kind of help?...Or if he suffered from

some debilitating illness, a terrible disability that had made him difficult to deal with, a raging

pain in the butt...Wouldn't someone who loved him try at least to break though the anger and

rage, help him?...

If I cared for him?...And if he could be helped...?

Wasn't I at least obligated to try?...

And yet...I am the Slayer...Can I go round trying to "help" every vamp I run into?...

And anyway, don't I already give the only kind of "help" possible...My Gift...

After all, even Anya had said staking was kinder than leaving him as he was...Halfway between

Humanity and Demonkind...Heaven and Hell...

And I had to be sensible about it...Did I care enough to potentially throw my life away again?...

Was it worth the risk, keeping him around...And in hope?...

Could I bear killing him...again?...Or sending him off, which I knew would be even worse...

Maybe even threatening to his soul itself, assuming the kind of despair he...William might feel...

But I am the Slayer...With all attendant responsibilities and duties to the world...

And of course, my Dawny...

And I have a right to a life...God knows, I've earned it...The hard way...

Still...As hard as I tried to be sensible about it...I couldn't quite figure out...Why...

If I knew why I...Cicely...Had rejected him...The good reason that had to be in there, buried

somewhere...I could be firm about it...And quiet the other voice raging inside me...

The one that had been winning out ever since I returned from the dead...

Hell, to be honest...Winning out ever since Willow's little spell had made me think of William as

a matrimonial prospect...And led him to love me...

Or, to remember loving me?...

Ok, it was partly good old vanity...Oh, God...I couldn't be...Couldn't ever have been...That

shallow...

Could I...?

Right, the girl who took a former homicidal maniac as her lover...Twice...An undead former

homicidal maniac in both cases...

With such excellent excuses too...

The first was so tall, dark and cute...Well, at least I found some good excuses later with Angel...

My soulful one...A hero, after all...

And the second...

He loved me...Hopeless as it was...Enough to fight his nature...Even with the demon raging...

And I needed someone, anyone...

But...

Oh my God...Angel...He was looking for human Darla and found me...Heck, I was blonde,

wasn't I?...And had some of that self-sacrificing nature he'd always sensed, buried somewhere in

his poor Darla...

And I...Whatever of Cicely that was still left in me...

Was looking for a vampire...With a poetic soul...

Only mine was still trapped with his demon in control...

Oh, God...

The soul I'd condemned with a single wish...But...

Say, wait...If it really works that easy...?

Worth a try, right...?

"Ok, I'd like Will's humanity restored...And everything else back the way it was before Mom

died...Giles back, Mom alive, me with some hope of a future..."

And, while you're at it...Daddy back with Mom, please...

Oh!...

"And Dawny stays!..."

I'm waiting...

Great...My thoughtless wish is welcome and immediately granted when I kill someone I love

but the PTBs are deaf when I want something nice to happen...

But I had to be sensible about this...

So...I knew him before...What did that prove?...

Maybe I simply hadn't loved him...

So maybe I had a hand in his condemnation...

A compassionate God could have prevented it...

But something told me...I had loved him...

Just as I did now...

But even so...

What do you owe the people you love?...Especially when you've been separated from them

for a century...

At least peace, perhaps...At least that much...And William might be grateful once he were

freed...

Any residual debt paid...Any guilt absolved...

But to let him go...Now?...

I had to learn more...

Proof that Halfreck wasn't lying...How she had condemned Will...

And why I'd...Cicely'd called on her...

But...I didn't think she lied to Anya and Xander...

Hmmn...A irritating thought now crossed my mind...

She wants to "date" William?...

My William...?

God, I hope I was shallower in 1880...

But now, someone else was involved...

Someone whose pity for William was taking her in directions she'd never have imagined a

short time ago...

But then...I guess we've all changed a bit over the course of the last couple of years...

Tara had hurried over to the Magic Box the next morning to begin her hunt for ways to

help...And to confirm the demon's claims...

"Mr. Walthrop", conscientious head clerk was up and about early...Prepping for the day's

business...And greeted her warmly...

She couldn't help grinning at the sight of Spike in Randy suit...Eyeing the shop displays with

the keen eye of both a former Cambridge scholar...And a denizen of the underworld whose

use of magics centered on practical tasks...

No need to be all mystical with the stuff for the real users...he noted to Anya...An equally

early-riser...

With a renewed, joyous reason to rush to work every morning...

Besides the joy of putting green paper with the images of US presidents in her cash register, I

mean...

The mystical touches are all wrong for the real stuff, Spike explained to her as Tara watched,

amused...It just makes them wonder if you people know anything about the magics you sell...

But, in her amusement there was sorrow for Will...And a slight, growing annoyance at me...

Where was I?...Why wasn't I here telling Will what I'd learned?...Trying to find a way to help

him?...

She was and is a fair person though...And thinking, asked Anya if I was working extra shifts

at Doublemeat...

"Buffy's working here in the afternoon..." Anya noted...

I think she's working evening to night before Patrol and sleeping in the mornings...

Oh...

"How's it going...?" Anya hissed...

They'd agreed not to mention anything to William until I ok'd it...

Tara was simply looking to avert a possible new menace was all they'd told him...

She shook her head faintly, Spike moving towards them she wanted to avoid a conversation on

the subject just yet...

But he had a request of her...Which he passed on during a lull in the morning trade...

Actually more lulls than trade in the morning...It was a magic shop after all...And a weekday...

"What do you know about Darla's resurrection?..." he asked Tara...

Trying to be causal...A poised vamp/shopkeeper of the world...

Just curious, he noted...

Actually...She'd completely forgotten about it...

After all, I'd only mentioned it briefly when I'd told the gang of Connor and all...

Celebrating her death and recovering from the shock about Connor had pretty much preoccupied

all their minds...

Except of course...For Spike...

"I'll look up anything that's out there..." she assured him kindly...

He nodded his thanks and returned to greet a few browsers...Tara watching him...

The Wolfram-Hart resurrection ceremony...

Probably his best chance...Humanity-wise at least...

A former poet, perhaps...But his years of suffering had left him a practical fellow...

And yet...was it right?...To give him hope?...Not only hope of Humanity...But hope of me...

Still...She'd promised the poor guy...And me as well...

She watched him deftly handling the customers and their questions, more coming in as the day

when on...

All his old Victorian charms...The ones he'd trotted out for Mom on occasion...The one person in

a century who treated him with compassion...

It didn't seem fair...It couldn't be right...He had so much...Soul...In him...

Still, only the chip was holding him back...Or, opening a few chinks in the prison wall to let

William shine through...

That was the image that did it, she told me later...A few slivers of William shining through

into Spike...Was enough to do this...

He must have been...Must be...Quite a sweet and courageous soul, as Halfreck had told Anya...

To have endured all this...Hell, Angel had Angelis driven out...And it took him nearly a century

to reach out to Humanity again...

Exactly when Tara fell in love with William, she couldn't say...but it was sometime that day,

she knew that much...Watching him smile...Knowing he thought he'd now lost me...And yet

clinging on to a fragment of hope...Still trying...

Maybe her compassionate soul just couldn't bear it any longer...Slaying and never

helping...Never even trying to help the creatures we destroyed...Evil ones, sure...But some of

them...So tormented...Like Will...

Somebody...Somebody had to care...She told me later...

Sunrise...Part VI...

I got to the Magic Box about 2pm...Tara hard at work in her researches...A somewhat clueless

Willow having joined her and happily joined in the search for info on Wolfram-Hart's spell...

Strictly via computer...Non-magically enhanced computer...

She was happy to be at it...And pleased by the notion that it might help Will...

I frowned a bit at seeing even Willow happily and without reservation committing to helping

Spike...

But then he'd been there for them all summer...She'd always liked him, even...especially,

perhaps...When he came after her and found himself torn between trying to transform and to

console her ...

And she was a leetle guilt-ridden, probably due to fall-out from Tara's concern for him...

Rather wishing now when all was said and done that she'd at least considered cracking a book

or two on vampire redemption during those past months...After all, he'd been trying...And Tara

seemed so troubled by his plight...

She was a tad surprised by my lack of enthusiasm...But took it as stemming from the natural

caution of the Slayer...

Besides...After recent events she would just as soon avoid delving too deeply into things like

my current relationship with the Blonde One...

Anya and Xander were back together...Soon to try knot-tying again...With mucho less fanfare

this time...

And we were trying to do something nice for Spike...Something that might potentially help

Angel...And therefore, depending on how things really stood between the Brooding One and

me, maybe Buffy as well...

Best of all...She and Tara were working together again...Another step on the road to

reconciliation...

All happy signs of the world returning to relative normalcy as far as she was

concerned...So...Why probe into causes?...

It didn't take long for Tara to let slip that she did not understand my attitude...Not in so many

words...Just in looks she gave William and then directed at me...

Not, as she told me later that day, that I should be Will's lover... Or should be wringing my

hands in desperation, urging on the research...

But...Knowing what I knew...Even if we had to get confirmation of Halfreck's story...

She eyed me from time to time as William, model head shop clerk, dashed about...

Hell...Look at the poor guy...

At least let him know you cared enough to ask me about helping him...

She even managed to slip in a sharp word or two for me...Well, for Tara at least, a sharp

word...When Willow and William were both away and occupied...And she gave me her

opinion of my attitude...

For God's sakes, Buffy...You're his lover...And neither by spell nor bite...Your own choice...

He needs you now...At least to care a little...

Naturally, in my current state, I was happy to let myself get resentful at her...

If she felt he was so deserving of sympathy...

So that a newly arrived Xander was picking up rather hostile vibes between us by about the

time Willow had to take her leave of us for an evening seminar and library work...

Anya rather too engaged with the heaviest trade of the day to pay much heed, along with her

new head shop clerk...

Whom I couldn't help noticing was attracting considerable attention from the female customers...

To my surprise I realized that Tara, oddly enough, was somewhat annoyed by that attention as

well...

However...My "boss" the "head clerk" had need of my services...And I was soon too busy to

either scowl at Tara or watch her watching William...

Though perhaps a bit pleased to be in position to deflect some of our female customers away

from my "boss"...To keep Mr. Walthrop from being unduly disturbed in his labors...

But there was still something in the air...Which Willow, Anya, and Spike may have been too

busy to notice but which led Xander to eye Tara and me with a ...Guys?...look...

Which we both answered with a shrug and glance at the other...Ask her...

Which a wise Mr. Harris, well schooled in dealing with the strange ways of his lady friends,

studiously refrained from doing...

Dawn arrived, briefly breaking the tension, about six...Homework done, bored...

Looking our Mr. Walthrop over from head to toe and shaking her head...

"Ok...Who are you and what have you done with our Spike?..." she grinned at him...

At seven, after quietly cleaning up the shop with Buffy, reviewing receipts with Anya, and a

brief descent to his new digs, Spike emerged in his more traditional attire...

Had a bit of clothes shopping to do...Being a bit threads-bare...He grinned at Buffy...

"Can we go?..." Dawn looked hopefully at her sis...Who shook her head...

Home...Supper...Some quality time with TV...A brief Patrol...And thank God, a night's sleep...

No shift at DP tonight...

"Another time, Nibs..." Spike smiled at her...Looking noncommitally at Buffy...

"Tomorrow, Ms. Summers..."

"Wait, Will..." Tara told him...

I'll come with you...We have a few things to talk over in any case...

He stared at her...

Well...My meeting with my "contacts" is hours away yet...he noted to himself...And if Tara has

found anything...

"A pleasure..." he smiled...

Buffy hurriedly asked to see "the old gang" a mo before leaving...If Mr. Walthrop wouldn't

mind going out for a moment with Dawn...

Geesch...Dawn groused...What's the deal?...

Still...She wanted a chance to get Spike alone...See what she could get out of him regarding all

things romantic between him and her sis...

Spike was pleasant about it...

Some matter too indelicate for us innocent types...he grinned at Dawny...Leading her out...

The door chimed as they left, Dawn still frowning back at her sis...

Well...? Tara looked at the Slayer...

"Don't you think it's better for us to go over whatever you've got...First...?" Buffy asked her...

Xander sighing at the sharp tone...

"I haven't..."got"...Anything...Yet..." Tara replied...Looking evenly at the Slayer...

Nice of you to ask, though...Her own rather sharp reply...But I just wanted to give Will some

company at the Mall...And maybe ask a few questions that might help the research...

"Tara..." Buffy eyed her... "I don't want this to get out of hand...It's all very well for us to try

and see if there's anything we can do for Spike..."

You called me in on this, Buffy...Tara noted...

"And I don't see anything wrong with helping William pick out some clothes..."

I don't think it's wise for any of us to get too close to Spike...Buffy told her...

Tara frowned back...Too close?...You're going to stand there and tell me I'm getting too "close"

to Spike?..she did not say...And did not need to as far as Buffy was concerned...

Anya, now sitting with the others, had caught the hostility between the Slayer and the

Wiccan...And, as always, handled the situation with tact and delicacy...

"Are you two fighting?...About Spike?..." she looked at them...Xander blinking nervously, but

not, for once, with surprise...

No!...They both replied hastily, looking back at her...

I'm trying to warn Tara to be careful...Buffy noted sternly...

"And I'm telling Buffy...I can take care of myself..." Tara replied firmly...

Oh...Anya nodded...

"So...Why are you two fighting about Spike?...Oh!..." she gasped...

Fighting over Spike...

They both stared at her...Fighting...?...Over...?

"Tara?...I thought you only liked women...?" she stared at Tara...

"Does Willow know?...Does Spike know?..."

Buffy rolled her eyes...Anya...

Actually...Anya...Tara paused...

"I never took the 'gay, now' pledge"...

And...No...Tara looked at Buffy...

"I haven't told Willow...And Spike doesn't know I love him..."

Yes, my jaw dropped...

I knew she cared...And was hurt for him by the way I was acting...How I felt...Or pretended to

feel...Nothing for his suffering...

In fact I'd been allowing myself to get rather pissed by her dissatisfaction with my attitude...

But...

I wasn't expecting genuine competition from that quarter...

She...Loves him?...

Loves...My William?...

Oh, God I hope I was shallower in 1880...

"Don't be ridiculous, Tara..." Buffy muttered, staring at her...

Feeling sorry for him is all well and good...her voice trailed off as Tara looked back at her

firmly...

Tara...Xander said gently...You're very kind...We understand you're sympathizing with him...

But you didn't know William the Bloody...The way he really was...

She looked at them...

"I know you all think I'm a fool...A sentimental fool but...This is not the same creature you

knew..."

And I am not "sympathizing" with him...

I care about him...And I want to help him...At least help him feel like a human...

She stared at Buffy...

"Buffy..."

"Ever since the chip, we've all felt him becoming more human...As if the chip had opened a

window for him ...And then he came to love you...He saved Dawny and helped us all even

when you seemed gone forever...When it couldn't benefit him...What does that say to you...?"

I'm doing what I can for him...Buffy eyed her...

"Whatever he's done for us, Tara...He's still William the Bloody...Held back only by the chip..."

She paused...

As for loving me...

He wants me dead and transformed...Maybe that's his idea of love...But that's all...

"Maybe there is something alive in there...But that is not our responsibility..."

And you can't handle him...If you get too close to him...It could wind up endangering us all...

"If I get too close to him?..." Tara replied, nostrils flaring...

I see that secret's out...Xander thought...

So Tara knows...And I never said a word...Just like I promised my honey, Anya noted happily

to herself...

"I can handle him...You can't..." Buffy stared back at Tara...

The decision's mine Tara...

"I'm not here today to work for you, Buffy...I came to help William..."

And if you won't help him with me...I will alone...Tara looked at her coldly...

"What about Willow?..." Buffy replied...

I'm not talking about hopping into bed with him...Tara eyed the now crimsoning Slayer coolly...

"But in any case, Willow doesn't need me the way Spike does..." Tara looked at her...

He doesn't stand a chance without someone pulling for him...

"Somebody has to help him...Somebody has to care...Otherwise..."

I'm not letting him go without trying...she concluded...

I went out and found Dawn talking to Will about his new digs...

She had mucho ideas on just how to bring that repressed air of menace in him to the surface...

Not of course for killing purposes...It just made for such a neat look...

He was both pleased and a little startled...Regarding me sheepishly...

"Your sis has...Interesting decorative ideas..." he grinned at her...

Still not all that surprising if you're ever seen our Mom's art exhibits...A real artistic

flamethrower underneath that demure suburban homemaker...

A true Slayer's mom...

Tara came out to join Will...I considered reconsidering my previous refusal...

After all...Dawn needed shoes...

"Maybe...We should come along...We need to pick up a few things..." I noted...

So much for our first date...Spike grinned at Tara...

Who eyed me...Carefully...

Sunrise...Part VII...

So...There we were...Four happy suburbanites savoring the Sunnydale Mall experience...

Well...Two of us were reasonably happy...

Well, maybe content would be the better word in Spike's case...

And even Dawny's bubbling enthusiasm was a little forced...Being so concerned as to the actual

state of things between Spike and me as she was...

I decided to be forthright about it...Protect my unwary, unworldly friend...Who'd fallen

dangerously prey to her natural sympathy...

Sliding up to Spike, I asked my "boss" to give me a moment alone as we strolled...

Tara looked back at us from where she'd pulled ahead with Dawn...

Well aware of what I was up to...But she'd deal with me in her own good time...

And she, like me, felt it was best to keep as much as possible from Dawn just now...

"Will...I want you to keep away from Tara..." I told him as we dropped back and pulled over

to an empty corner near a shoe store...Telling Dawn I wanted to check over some bargain

shoes...

A statement guaranteed to make her flee down the hall...

Spike eyed me quietly...

"Ms. Maclauy and I are friends, of a kind...She's protected by the chip and her abilities...I

think she can handle an occasional conversation with me..." he replied evenly...

She cares about you, Spike...And I don't want to see her hurt...Or worse...I noted...

"I have a strange way of not killing people these days, Slayer...Especially people I like..."

You may remember I never harmed Joyce or Dawn...Even when I could've...

"You could show me a little faith, Buffy..." he paused...

But then if you're worried I'll violate the bounds of friendship...You have the solution in your

pocket...he regarded me...

"She thinks she's in love with you, Spike..." I told him...

It caught him by surprise, I'll say that...He stared, then smiled gently at me...With just a touch

of wonder...

A boy's sweet and loving smile...I recognized that smile...From our times together...

Now...And...Back then...Though it was only later I realized that...

Oh...My sweet Will...What have I done?...But the moment passed...I got hold of myself...

"Then I am a very lucky...Unman..." he noted...

He stared down the corridor to where Tara had caught up to Dawn...Eyeing shoes in the Gucci

shop no less...Like sister like sister, I guess...Like hell, with our current budgetary state, I

thought...Grateful, however, for the necessity of shifting back to the here-and-now...

"She told you this...?" he eyed me...

Not going the way I had hoped...I realized...

He seems genuinely touched...And much too pleased...

"She's let herself get all worked up over your "tragic" condition, Will..." I told him...

I won't her make a foolish mistake...

He noted that I had ignored his suggestion for a quick solution...

I glared...If he thought I wouldn't...Consider it...

"I wouldn't hurt her...Or Willow...For the world..." he told me...

Or Eternity...

"You were ready to kill Willow not too long ago..." I pointed out...

"Well...From my old pov, granting the gift of eternal life is hardly...Killing someone..." he

grinned...

But I can see the human perspective a bit better these days...

"Besides it would hardly be fair...I'm in love with someone else...And I know how much it

hurts to be rejected by someone you care for..."

Still...If I had any brains...he grinned...Again looking up the way towards Tara and Dawn...

Enough...I raised my hands...

"Just promise me you'll leave her alone...Outside the times you have to see her..."

"Ms. Maclauy is an adult, last time I checked, Slayer...I'm willing to promise to do my best

not to hurt her...For her sake, though, not yours..." he stared at me coolly...

If that doesn't suit...he waved his hands...

I walked away from him towards the others...Him following, with a sardonic look...

I know cause I watched him from the corner of my eye...While I pretended to stare into the

various shops as I moved to catch Dawn and Tara...

He'd be using this as a club over my head, I knew...Not that Tara loved him...But the way I

acted...

Like some jealous ex-lover...

Like someone whose beloved had slipped away without a word...Without a single damned

word...

Even if I had destroyed his home...

But a song plays in my heart as I walk over...

He doesn't love her...he doesn't love her...

Tara had watched Buffy and Spike talking in their corner spot, looking one after the other

down at her and Dawny...As Dawny chatted, looking in the various shops...

Chatted in a nervous way that Tara had realized indicated Dawn's own nervousness regarding

her sister and Blondie...

She looks at her friend...Poor kid...She's been through so much this year...

Including coming into existence...she thinks wryly...

Buffy had broken off from Spike and was moving up to them...Dawn taking on a look of

profound interest in the Gucci shoes in the shop window...

Tara looks back down at Spike who is now beginning to follow after his Slayer...

What did she say to him?... "Keep away from Tara?..." "Keep away from me?..." Both,

probably...

God...What is he supposed to do?...she thinks...

Heck, I know what she wants him to do...Stake himself...Or just go way...Vanish for her like

he did in 1880...

When Halfreck did the dirty work for her...

Lucky Buffy...Lucky Cecily...To have a service like that at her beck and call...

But a price must be paid at the end...Wonder what the PTBs charge you for condemning an

inconvenient lover for all eternity?...

Still...A man she must have loved dearly in 1880 to love so much in spite of everything now...

I know she does...In fact, I love him in no small part because she loves him so...And is so

terrified to let him know...

And he still loves her...All that's happened to him...And that much of Will has survived...

Drawn back to his Cicely like a magnet...

But if he knew what we know?...And knew that in spite of it she's still not ready to help him...

He'd still...will still...Go on loving her...I know that too...Which is why...

Oh, God, Will...What a soul you must have...

Looking at the Guccis seemed to be having the desired effect on Buffy, Dawn noted to herself

as she continued staring at the insanely priced shoes...

Sis was breaking away from her beloved and coming up after them...

What had she said to him?... "Why did you leave?" ...Or was it "Go away"?...

Poor, poor sis...So much in love...So fearful...

God, why did it have to be Spike?...

Why couldn't You give us a cure for him?...

Why do I have to be in the way?...

Still...She doesn't have to accept total responsibility for Will now at least...

There's someone else besides her "justice" demon ready to take him off her hands...

She eyed Tara, looking down at them...If anyone had told me a year ago that Buffy and Tara

would both be in love with William the Bloody within a year...

She hadn't meant to ferret out Tara's little secret...She'd just been looking to unburden herself

about poor Buf...

Buffy had told her that Tara knew about her feeling for Will...So she'd felt ok mentioning her

concerns as they walked...

"I wish Buffy could treat him a little better...He's so lost..." was all Tara responded, looking

back at him...

Odd...Dawn had thought...I should be relieved...Potential salvation at hand...Who kinder or

better than Tara to help poor Will?...Free my poor sis from this terrible load...

But my first thought was...She loves our Will?...My Buffy's Will?...

Looking at sis approaching...Eyeing Tara carefully as Spike watched and followed her...my

second was...

So...Thank God, Buf knows...She'll deal with her...Nobody takes the Slayer's beloved...

"Poor Willow"...A very distant third...

She couldn't help looking down and grinning at the Magic Box's new head clerk...

You're one lucky guy, Spike...Condemned thing not withstanding...

Sunrise...Part VIII...

So...It was a very pleasant evening at the Sunnydale Mall...At least for William the Bloody

aka Mr. William Soames Walthrop, head clerk of the Magic Box...

Watching Tara and me eyeing each other...Enjoying it thoroughly...

Well...He was full of sympathy for Tara at least...

And clearly appreciated her regard for him...Regard, which he now knew, thanks to yours truly,

had reached a whole new level...

For her...He was the perfect Victorian gentleman...So much so that he was now even cautious

with me...Ever anxious to protect dear Tara from any embarrassing scenes...On the part of his

jealous ex-lover...

I could believe Willow's story now about how he'd turned suddenly from menacer to comforter

that time in her dorm...

Heck, to be honest...Hadn't he comforted me time after time?...

He eyed me firmly from time to time as our reunited group strolled on down the Mall corridors...

Don't upset her...His look said...

I frowned a little back...Heck, wasn't I the one who told him to back...But the song played on

in my heart and when he turned away, I smiled at him...

Drifting into a reverie...

He always was so kind, my Will...It never surprised me how sweetly he treated Dru...No part

of him ever blaming her...

But, he was always that way...Poverty and hardship never left a mark on him...

The sweetest soul I ever knew...From the first day I met him, when Cousin Henry brought him to

the house...It was always there in his eyes, that sweet soul...

I came back to the Mall with a start, looking around...Thankfully the others hadn't noticed me

zonking out...

But now I knew...Guess I'd been turning things over in my mind since Anya told me about

Cicely...

I didn't need to corral Halfreck for the truth, though I still had as many questions as ever...And

intended to get answers...

That was the first time I clearly remembered 1880...

It didn't take long for Tara to see from Spike's manner that Buffy had said something to him

about her...

He was clearly anxious to treat her with consideration...And obviously grateful for her feeling

towards him...

Kind fellow, that vampire...

Sadly, however...It was equally clear to her his feelings would remain the same...But then the

love he'd somehow retained for his Cicely had lasted beyond the grave and more than a century...

Hardly likely he'd change in an instant...And she wouldn't have wanted him to...

Still, practical matters...She was going to help him if it was humanly possible and honestly

wanted to get more info from him for her efforts...

Turning to speak to him, she caught Buffy wanly smiling at him...Lost for a moment in her

thoughts...

Tara blinked...And sighed...Well...I was right...

Thank God, the Wiccan thought, generously...But with some considerable regret...

She still loves him...No doubt about it...

Just terrified for what it means...And may do to them both...Poor kid...

Well...she sighed inwardly...Hell, it would've been awful if all his struggle to keep something

alive for her sake had been for nothing...she thought...

Buffy blinked, shook herself, and moved over to Dawn...Beginning a slightly confused

conversation about shoes...

Dawn staring at her as she babbled on...Something about the way a true lady is judged by her

shoes...

Must never reveal too much of the ankle...

Fortunately, Spike and Tara hadn't heard her...

"Spike...?" Tara asked him...He swinging back to look at her in turn...

"I had some questions about your transformation...Anything you might remember..."

"Of course..." he smiled... "But..." he grinned a little sheepishly... "Not much to tell there..."

Poor Dru caught me making a bad turn in the street and that was basically that...he shrugged...

Smiling gently at her...

"Buffy..." she called back to the Slayer...Who looked up at her, still a bit out of it...

Dawn, a leetle worried, kindly refraining from taking Gucci advantage of her somewhat spacey

sis...Who at least had stopped with the etiquette of shoes lecture...

"Spike and I are gonna take a little break and sit...I have some questions for him...Can we catch

up in a bit?"

Buffy nodded...Staring a little at Spike...Hesitating...Clearly a hair reluctant to leave them...

With a question of her own on her lips...Many in fact...

But it was Dawn who asked to join them...Brightly...

Well...Tara thought to herself, sighing slightly...She is part of Buffy...

And I suppose any little sis would look out for big sis' romantic relationships...

Buffy, however, having gotten a bit more of a grip, now insisted they continue the shoe

hunt...And a reluctant Dawn followed her down the hallway, looking back from time to time

at the two now sitting at a small table...

Not that she wasn't relieved to see someone else taking a little of the pressure of the Blonde One

off her sis...Just...

She'd kinda like not seeing all that pressure lifted...

"How did you summon Halfreck?..." Buffy asked her sister abruptly as they moved out of earshot

of Tara and Spike...

Summon?...Halfreck?...

Dawn...Buffy glared...

"Honest...I really didn't do anything" Dawn noted..."All I did was call for her..."

You want to talk to her?...Dawn asked, a little eagerly...

About Spike?...she eyed Buffy curiously...

"I need to speak with her...Alone..."

Well...Why not just call her?...Dawn replied...A tad miffed at the exclusion...

I did...Buffy regarded her sister...The other night, back home...

No dice...

She paused, eyeing Dawn...

"Maybe...You could try for me..." she hesitated...

Sure...Dawn grinned...No problemo...

The Key to the rescue...she wisely did not say...

Buffy glared again a bit...But her anxiety won out...In equal part with embarrassment...

"I just need to talk to her...And just this once..." she looked at Dawn, a little pleading creeping

in...

Absolutely, Dawn nodded...A one-time special occasion...she noted, trying to make it easier...

Alone...Once she comes...Buffy insisted...If she comes...And just this once...

Gotcha...Dawn agreed...Her pleasure at being an essential part of the team on this one

overcoming her mild grouse at not getting to stick...

After all, the important thing is that Buffy gets the low-down on Will's condemnation from

their "justice" demon...she thought...

And I'll get it out of her later...

Dawn bent her head to look back down at Tara and Spike, still talking things over at their table...

And motioned Buffy to follow her through corridor doors to a blocked-off, empty exit hallway...

She hesitated, looking at her waiting sis...Hmmn...

Only done this once on my own initiative, you know...she thought...

Well...? Buffy looked back...

"I'll give it a shot..." Dawn nodded...Pausing...

But...I don't think she comes unless she feels like it, she noted...

And when you're not around...she added...

"I kinda think she's scared of you..."

She oughta be...Buffy thought...

I got Dawn to put in the call for her demon jinn...Knowing it was a mistake to give Halfreck

any opening in our lives...

But after what I'd just experienced...And what Anya and Xander had told me earlier...

I had to know more...

Dawny of course getting quite the kick out of being the "summoner"...Dragging me to an empty

closed-off hallway and then insisting I let her call to the "justice" demon in private first...

Hmmn...I frowned...My sis is getting much too much into these occult things...And beginning

to get too good at it...

Smart at that I guess...No need to have a demon popping into the middle of the food court...

But after this...No more personal conversations with guardian demons... "Justice" or otherwise...

And at that I told her to call me right back to them if and when bulging veins girl appeared...As I

moved off down the hallway, watching and fretting...

God, how did Mom ever handle all this with me?...

"Bit of an obstacle that..." Spike noted to Tara as they sat...

They'd begun discussing the Wolfram-Hart resurrection spell...

Which Tara had little real info on but which seemed, if Wesley's report to the Council via Giles

was accurate, to require the initial death of the subject...Or destruction, if one considered the

vampiral form...

"It's some kind of soul summons, Giles seems to think..." she noted...Along with a regeneration

pretty similar to what Buffy experienced...

And could be pretty chancy...

"But Darla came through..." Spike pointed out...

Only to die a short time later, Tara replied...

Maybe of more or less natural causes...Maybe not...

And soul summoning is tricky...Tara looked at Spike...

You could wind up with your demon in a chip-free human body...And your soul booted out to

limbo for good...

"Odd to think a year ago that would have been my whole plan..." Spike grinned at her...

Tara stared at him a bit...

"Spike...Do you feel...?...Do you have any sense of your demon and soul as separate?..." she

asked...

At least since the chip?...

"I've never felt like a schizoid man...Mind split down the middle, soul versus demon...If that's

what you mean..." he responded...

"But...You have felt different over the past couple of years?..."

Sometimes...he nodded...

Sometimes no different from when I was slaughtering happy meals by the dozen...

He eyed her ruefully...

"I won't lie to you and say I live in an agony of remorse...Or that I even feel grief for the folks

I've chowed down on...I took what I needed then and survived..."

But sometimes?...she began...

Yeah...he nodded...Sometimes, these days...Usually when I'm with you lot...Or the Slayer...I

almost feel...That I'm a man again...As if it's me...Back...

Then I spend time with Harris and thank God I'm a vampire...he smiled...

She grinned back...

Sweet lady...he thought...God, you're a fool to let this one slip by Walthrop...Well..A fool for

love, that's me...he noted to himself...

God, how to handle this one...Letting the human girl who cares for me down easy...

Poor Dru and dear old Angelis were never much for instructing their offspring in how to deal

with difficult social situations...

Fortunately it's generally easy with Buffy...I say the first rude or crude thing that pops into my

head, she whacks me silly...I keep firing them off until random chance and luck lets me say

something that touches her...

And she smiles at me...Or laughs...

Tara needs a somewhat more delicate touch...

"Dawny..." Halfreck happily beamed...

Oh...She eyed Buffy who'd hurried back to them at the demon's appearance...Hand moving to

clutch her pendant...

"Wait, Halfreck..." Buffy told her...

I need to talk to you...

"She won't hurt you..." Dawn assured her...

'Sides, you've got your pendant thing...she noted...

Well...Halfreck looked sideways at the Slayer...

"I can't promise I know the answers to your questions..." she told Buffy cautiously...

Or that I'm allowed to answer them...

Give us a mo, Dawn...Buffy turned to her sis...

A somewhat tentative, even nervous Spike remained as attentive to his companion as to the

talk of resurrection spells...

He was grateful for her kindness in trying to help him, he stressed to her...

William the Bloody...Desperate to "let me down easy"...Tara smiled inwardly at Spike as

he carefully directed the conversation away from any discussion of his relationship or lack

thereof with Buffy...

He'd do his best to be worthy of the effort she was making, he noted...And her friendship...

"Just don't give up, Will...That's all I ask..." she told him...

After all, you do have something to shoot for...she noted...

She does care, you know...She's just afraid...Tara looked steadily at him...

He stared back...

"Thank you..." he said simply...

"I do have a question, though..." she looked at him...

Did you know that Halfreck?...And how...?

Spike eyed her...And sighed...

"Yeah...I know Halfreck..."

"You summoned me as Cicely Addams in 1880..." Halfreck was explaining...

Buffy stared at her...

Well...Halfreck paused...Not a deliberate, "come forth demon and smite" kind of summoning...

You were desperate...Confused...And D'Hoffryn heard your pleas...Sent me to you...

You being the Slayer and all...He took a special interest...

And...At your request...Halfreck insisted...I dealt with him...

Dealt with him...Buffy thought...But before she could bring herself to ask...How...Another

thought tore at her...

"I was the Slayer...If I have gone after him, I could've saved him..." Buffy stared at the demon...

"But you didn't..." Halfreck smiled...

You see...It wasn't meant to be...

You knew it then...And you know it now...It's just impossible...

"I wanted to love him..." Buffy paused...Struggling to remember...

But he was so gentle...So helpless...I couldn't have him around...He'd of died in an instant...

I'd pushed everyone else away...To protect them...

It seemed like the right thing to do...It was what my Watcher had warned me to do...But...

"You couldn't do it that time...So I came..." Halfreck smiled...

And did it for you...

"No...I couldn't have asked for that..." she glared up at the demon...But there was pleading in

her voice...

I couldn't have wanted him dead...And condemned...

No...Halfreck agreed...It was just a lucky accident of fate...

And clear proof that it wasn't meant to be...

Buffy moved up on the demon...Who backed away, clutching the pendant...The Slayer waved

her hands...

I'm not going to hurt you...she told her...But...

"Can you reverse it?..." she looked at the demon...

Reverse...?

"Make him human again...?" Buffy hastily explained...

Ummn...? Halfreck stared at her...

Well...? Dawn eyed the Slayer as she opened the doors from the corridor where she'd been

speaking with the now vanished "justice" demon...

Aren't you gonna tell me anything?...her look said...

Apparently not...Judging from Buffy's frown...

Buffy motioned her to a store as she looked back to her...Dawn came to a shocked halt...

Payless...? She looked down to the others for help...Too preoccupied...

No hope of rescue...A pleading look to sis of no avail...

This the thanks I get for helping you?...she eyed Buffy...

But big sis was unrelenting...

"In..." she waved her...Knowing exactly what lil' sis was thinking...

"We're on a budget, Dawn...And some of the shoes here are perfectly fine..."

Affordable...

That dreadful word...Both sisters involuntarily gulping...

Sunrise...Part IX...

In spite of Dawn's best efforts, Buffy kept mum about whatever she'd learned from the "justice"

demon...

On the other hand, she caved a bit on the shoes...Raising the budget bar a notch...

So we have a couple Doublemeat days a week for the next month...Some things are just a

necessity, Dawn thought...Clutching her new shoes...

Tara and Spike hadn't noted their brief disappearance down the closed corridor and Dawn took

Buffy's hint to say nothing...

But she'd hadn't promised not to recall Halfreck later, she noted happily...To herself...

Tara was preoccupied in any case...Pondering what Will had told her...

Halfreck had known Spike before he emerged on the world trapping William within...Not all

that surprising...Demons spend a lot of time in Hell, waiting for Fate or their human

counterparts to offer them an opportunity, and usually return there pretty quick, what with

Slayers on their backs and all...

She'd put herself forward with D'Hoffryn to take the Cicely Addams case in 1880...Maybe

something to do with knowing his demon, maybe not...Though all he knew for sure courtesy

of Spike was that Cicely had called on her...What she did for her...He didn't know...

He'd encountered her on occasion since, her seeming rather eager at times to get

together...Assuming she'd played a role in disrupting his love affair and possibly his past life,

he'd avoided her...His demon apparently having no particular interest in contacting her...

"You never asked her...?" Tara had stared at him...

Whatever she did...It was at Cicely's request...he paused...

"I didn't want to know..."

Hopefully...It was nothing more than bucking her up to face me...And drive me off...

I'd rather not think she'd of wanted me dead...he eyed Tara...

"Anyway...Water under the bridge, long ago...Over and done with..."

What's the curiosity?...he'd smiled...

You don't know...? Tara had stared at him...

Ms. Maclauy...?

"Vampire here, Miss...Not a telepath..." he'd grinned at her...

"Spike..." Tara paused...Gently taking his hand...

"Buffy Summers is Cicely Addams..."

A relief to be back in with the dark and seedy, Spike thought as he entered Willie's...The

evening's Mall experience safely behind him...

Might as well be human again already...He was already back in the stream of relationships

that made up was it was to be a member of normal human society...

Trying to deal with Buffy and her changeable moods... "Get lost, Spike"... "Tell me you love

me, Spike"... "We're through, William"... "Why did you leave, Spike?"... "Stay away from

Tara"...was hard...And painful, literally as well as spiritually...enough...

Not to mention little Miss Kleptomaniac...Who thankfully had been focusing on Buffy and her

disastrous romantic choice tonight...Watching them like hawks all evening, he'd noted...

Add in the care and consideration of gentle Ms. Maclauy's feelings and facing some group of

underworld types or Warren Mears and his pathetic trio was a cakewalk by comparison...

He even had a boss to keep happy now...And her small-brained husband to finally be...

So much easier when Dru was his only concern...

And to top it all off...Tara's little bombshell...So...He hadn't found a new love after all?...

Buffy...His Slayer nemesis...And now beloved...

Cicely reincarnated?...

How'd he "feel about it"?...Tara had asked him...Fortunately she'd immediately realized the

foolishness of what she was asking, empathetic person that she was...

Oddly enough though...In thinking it over, he wasn't surprised, really...

That "you're beneath me..." crack...

Just too much of a coincidence...

And lets face it he noted to himself...I've been waiting for Cicely to show up all these years...

Just as Angel waited to find Darla in human form again...Not quite consciously, of course...

Just somehow knowing she'd reappear one day...

A lot to assimilate...And so it was a relief to return for a bit to the far more simple murky

Sunnydale underworld...Where the rules were straight-forward...Trust no one, take what you

can get...

But hell, even this little escapade was all for the love of Buffy...Cicely...

Humanity and its burdens...he sighed...

Still...He had to admit...He'd deal...Happily...If the damned Powers That Be would just grant

him a half-decent chance...

Well...? Spike eyed a sniveling Willie coming over from the bar...

"Did they make contact?..." he asked in a guarded voice...

"I saw a coupla of guys..." Willie nodded...They came in...

The same ones as been sniffing around town for months...On and off...he noted...

Government types or whatever...he eyed the vampire cautiously...

"I dunno if I like it...Ever since that damned Initiative closed down, ones like them've been

snooping around..."

Any idea as to who they might be...? Spike looked at the bartender...

Who...? Willie looked back...I told you, G-men types...Guys in Black...You know...

"Any particular government?..." Spike frowned at the little barkeep... "Did they speak with

accents?...Or were they all-American boys?..."

After all 100% naturalized American vampire here...Can't sell off these superweapons to just any

dictatorship or terrorist group...Only Americans, allies, or American-backed fanatics need

apply...

They spoke English...Looked American...Willie fidgeted as he answered...Coulda been from

anywhere though...

"Maybe this ain't a good idea, Spike..."

I mean...It's one thing to be messing with the powers of darkness and the forces of Hell...

This might be the US government...Those boys don't fool around...

Maybe we do business and they cut our throats to keep us quiet...he hesitated...

"No big concern on my part, Willie..." Spike grinned... Once you've died the first time, the thing

loses its sting...

But don't worry...I'll look out for you...he assured the little barkeep...

So...What did you tell them?...he eyed Willie...Who squirmed a bit...His nature...Both to squirm

and to hold back...

"Just like ya said...You have some stuff they might be interested in if they've got the cash behind

them..."

Did you give them my name?...Spike smiled at him...

I just told them to come by tonight...In the alley off First, past Herr St...Just like ya told me to...

They want you to call first...Gave me a number...

"Willie...?" Spike regarded him...Coolly...

The barkeep winced...

Ok...I had to give them a name...Something to let 'em know I wasn't some nutcase.

You know, a name like Will the Bloody opens doors...he grinned feebly...Fidgeting nervously

again...

"It's fine...Just as well they know who they're dealing with...But...Did they leave any info behind

about themselves?...You mentioned a number?..." Spike leaned over the bar, peering down at a

small hill of papers...Some old tabs, but mostly Willie's eavesdropping notes...

Never know when a chance overheard conversation might prove profitable...

And "the Snitch" must keep in form...

"Just this...Their contact number's on back..." Willie put a small card into the vampire's hand...

"Forestry Service?..." Spike looked at him, blinking...Willie shrugged...

You did tell them this was a weapons deal...? Spike eyed the bartender...Looking over the card...

"I'm not selling endangered species this week...And I'm fresh out of demon eggs..."

Course I told them...Willie frowned...

Hell, would I mess with government types for pennyanny stuff?...

Spike turned the card over in his hand and grinned, looking at the name and phone number

scrawled on back...Their contact man...

Well, well...Who'd of thought...?

Mr. Walthrop, head clerk of the Magic Box, took up a waiting position at the alleyway he'd

designated as the meeting place for his "contact"...

Not, perhaps, the first person he might have chosen to meet up with for this transaction...But

fortunately one who knew the Sunnydale situation and enjoyed the confidence of his superiors in

the "business"...

And one who could be expected to take Buffy's position in all this into account...

A tall man in black approached the waiting Spike...

He paused to glance around, obviously scanning for any possible eavesdroppers...Spike shaking

his head in amusement as he pulled out a high-tech scanner of some sort and checked it

carefully...

"Good evening, Mr. Finn..." Spike grinned at him...

"Is this really on the level, Doctor?..." Riley sighed...

"Cause I was called away from a preety damned important mission for this...Not to mention

having to leave my wife behind..." he frowned...

"Believe me, mate...You are the last...Well, next to last person...I ever wanted to see again..."

Spike noted...

But...Business is business...And it seems your bosses wanted somebody who knew the score

and me on the scene...

"An invisibility ray?..."

"I remind you...I said over the phone it could only be used for brief periods before permanent

damage may set in..."

"I can't believe the US government is talking to you after the eggs' incident..."

Well...Spike noted...You only knew their half of it...

"If you'd just asked me why I had them...Instead of bringing Buffy into it and strutting around

my crypt like some fire-and-brimstone preacher..."

It was still a violation of God knows how many laws, regulations, and rules...Riley noted...

Not to mention...Common sense...And those things were killers when born...

"They weren't supposed to be born...They were supposed to be dead...I treated them just as I

was told..." Spike replied...

And their use was supposed to be strictly medicinal...

"Like I believe that..." Riley frowned...

Harris and his twice-dumped, third-time's-the-charm-bride vouched for me, didn't they?...

I also can't believe they could have been so stupid...Riley noted...

"Getting mixed up in something like that...And trusting you, of all unpeople..."

Harris?...And dear Anya?...You can't believe they'd be that stupid?...Spike grinned...

But as to practical...We'd have made a fortune as well as having prevented your ferocious friend

from hatching her eggs in some secret lair days before you lot could've tracked them down...

"Except that your boiling of them didn't kill them and then you let them warm to room

temperature..."

"Can I help it if Anya got boiling time wrong...And my fridge went bonkers?..."

I had a hell of a time stealing them away from the mommy, you know...

Riley frowned at the little blonde fellow...Comfort as it was to know he could bash the helpless

vamp's face in anytime...It imposed certain unfortunate restrictions on behavior...

"How did you even reach my superiors?..."

"They came to me, mate...Or rather put it out in town that the good ole US government was

interested in anything weaponish that came up the Hellmouth...And ready to pay, no questions

asked..."

Looks like they want a return on their investment in the ole Initiative...he grinned...

"But..." Spike eyed the agent...Ridiculous look for a meeting like this, mate...Not to mention

poor style...All black...Please...?...With burglar's hood, no less...Hell, why not wear a sign,

CIA/Military Intelligence here?...

"If you have qualms, lad...I'm sure the grocery clerks back in HQ will send in someone

else...Maybe that rather nice Missus of yours..."

Riley grabbed his arm...Rather grateful for the valid reason to punch the little fellow out...

"Keep Sam out of this, Spike...For your own good..." he hissed...

Lets get down to business...he sighed...

"I assume you're not contributing this device free of charge to your adopted country..." he smiled

sourly...

"Well...If it was simply me involved, Joe...I'd wave the flag and hand it over...However, there

are others to be taken care of..."

He looked Riley in the eye...

Including the lady we've both let down...

"Does Buffy know about this?..." Riley looked back at him...Starting to pace a bit...

Of course not...Spike glared...

"What do you take her for...Some corrupt government hack?...Or a scheming, power-mad

member of the Council?..."

"But she...And the Nibs will benefit...If we can arrange things properly here and Anya and Tara

can help me work out a way to get it to them..."

We thought maybe Tara or Willow could arrange a letter from the good ole Council, concerned

about Buffy's future and all that...he explained...Wanting her free to continue her work

unencumbered by financial concerns...

Noble fellows that they are...Excepting old Giles...Who did pick a grand time to kick her out of

the nest...

"Like they'd ever give a damn..." he smiled at Riley... "Knowing it's her nature to put her ass on

the line for Humanity without a dime in return..."

Riley paced a bit more...Having looked steadily at the walls of the alleyway a few times as

Spike mentioned Buffy's plight and lack of reward...or help...

He stopped as Spike finished describing his plan to ennoble the COW...At no cost to them,

bastards...

"All right...Does the thing actually work?..."

In the way I described, yes...With those drawbacks I mentioned...Spike replied...

"And the inventor?..."

Secret...Spike smiled...

"Can't divulge my source...Bad for business, you know..."

"But he also has a few other toys up his sleeve...Likewise available for the right price..."

Amazing the effect of the Hellmouth's energy on some people...he noted...

The inventor would probably have trouble adding two numbers together anywhere else...Here,

he's a supergenius...he grinned...

Riley sighed...But somehow, unbelievably...He believed Spike was trying to help the Summers'

girls...

And he'd done damned little enough that way himself...He thought, ruefully...

Spike watched him...

"Look, Riley...You've spoken to the Harrises...If you still don't believe me on this...Talk to..."

I did...Riley nodded...I spoke to Tara...Though I didn't tell her about our little transaction...

"I don't do things like this without as complete information as I can get..."

She believes in you...Riley eyed him...Says you've been protecting Buffy and Dawn since

Glory...

Even when Buffy...Died...

"What I'd like to know...Before we go further...Is...Why?..."

"I'm in love with her...You already knew that..." Spike told him frankly...

Riley nodded...They both tensed as a footstep sounded...Human, Spike hissed...

It stopped...The person passing the alley obviously halted...Perhaps to peer down...They both

instinctively scrunched against the brick wall of one building...No one in sight...

They waited until the step resumed and passed...

Riley resumed the whispered conversation...

"Not hard to imagine...Loving Buffy...But why as a human?...Why not kill her and transform

her?...Tara told me Buffy's not protected anymore by the chip..." he looked steadily at the short

vamp...

"Buffy never needed the chip to protect her from me..." Spike grinned...

Tara said you'd had chances...Passed on them...Riley noted...

"I used to think that was what I wanted..." Spike paused...

After all, even if she cared...I'd lose her to age and dust in the end...

But...I couldn't bear to see her that way now...I won't let her go that way...he eyed Finn...

"Helping her now is one way to avoid it, Riley...She's been desperate at times these past

months...Not seeing any way out...Hell, she'd have married you if you'd come back

unattached..."

He paused to throughly enjoy Finn's brief wince on that one...

Even the Brooding One let her down he resumed...Picked a fine time to reveal that Darla was

the girl for him all along...

Riley...he pleaded...If no one helps her...One of these nights she'll give up...

I've seen it...Hell, I've benefitted from it...

"Please..." he begged... "Help her..."

God knows, soldier boy you owe her...

"I know I do..." Riley agreed quietly...

But...How can you love her that much?...he paused...Staring at him...

"This can't all be the effect of the chip..."

"Mate..." Spike paused... "If I knew the cause and reason, I'd have had them cut out or yanked

months ago..."

I love her...That's all I know...

"It's her soul, isn't it?..." Riley looked at Spike...

"You're aiming at her soul..."

It caught him by surprise...He hadn't quite worked it through but...

Spike nodded thoughtfully...Yes...

"I hadn't really thought it through..." he told Riley quietly... "But I think you're right...After all,

the only hope I have is if she and what's left of William meet...Someday..."

"Yeah...That's why I couldn't do it...When she was with me in my old place...I'd win only a

demon...If even her demon would stay with me...And lose any hope of Buffy...In Eternity...

The only place where it counts, in the end..." he smiled at the man in black...

And lose my chance to regain Cicely...If it's really true...And she has come back...he thought...

Looking for me...

Even if she did take some side turns on the way...eyeing Riley...

Riley stared at him...William the Bloody...Ready to wait and hope until Judgement Day for his

beloved to smile on him...

Poor guy...he thought, involuntarily...

"All right..." he sighed... "Bring your "ray gun" and any other little toys your "friend"'s got...To

Anya's shop on Friday..."

I'll make an evaluation and we'll see what we can get out of Uncle Sam...But, Doctor...he smiled

thinly...

"If the others are wrong about you...Or if you let Buffy down..."

Get in line, mate...Spike grinned...The list of folks who'll kill me if I fail to toe the line or let our

fair lady down is ever-growing...

"And includes me..." he noted...

Well...? Warren eyed Andrew, just returned to the trio's "safe house"...

Or "Fortress of Semi-Solitude" as Fearless Leader Mears preferred to call it...

The trio...or "guys gathered to be colossal pains in my butt" as Buffy would have called

them...were grouped about their basement workroom...

Jonathan more nervous and depressed than ever...And carefully watched by the other two...

Not the time to develop an adult conscience, man...Poor Kat's gone and won't be back...

But he couldn't quite manage to move on...

"Spike met some guy...Looked like a cat burglar or something..." Andrew noted...

"They didn't see you?..." Warren asked...

Nah...he grinned...The ole ray held up fine...

"But it looks like Spike is on the level..." he went on...

"I slipped in close enough to hear the guy mention payment if the stuff checks out..."

What about the guy...Government, foreign, demonic...? Warren looked at him...

"He's some military intelligence guy...Finn? I think Spike called him...?"

Actually, he knows the Slayer...Andrew grinned...

Better and better...Warren nodded...

Jonathan pulled his head up glumly at that...

"Why don't we just take what we can get from this guy and get out of this town?" he asked...

"Johnny, my man...This is our best chance to deal with the Slayer once and for all..." Fearless

Leader smirked...

Look...It's her now...Or us...And it's not gonna be us...Warren insisted...

And we are pledged to rule this town as its crime lords...We're going nowhere...

And William the Bloody?...Jonathan eyed him...

Together with the Slayer?...

"Spike's being there is essential..." Fearless Leader grinned...

Our hold on the Slayer...Her greatest weakness...

Vampires...Especially chipped ones...Are such fragile creatures, really...he noted...

Besides...We'll be uniting them...Forever...

"They'll die a very romantic death..." Warren giggled...

Sunrise...Part X...

Fragments, not whole pieces...Random bits of memory that somehow had stayed with me...Or

with Cicely...Were slowly starting to surface...The more I learned of my past life...

I walked the length of the Mall with a Dawny desperate to know what I'd ferreted out of our

"justice" demon...Bought an end to her questioning looks by letting her out of a "Payless

Shoes" experience...

A brutal threat, yes...But I wasn't ready to deal...Let alone discuss...

Fortunately...Spike and Tara had wrapped up their business and he was making a quick run into a

couple of stores before heading out...Previous important engagement...

More kitty poker, no doubt...I thought irritably...

And not even stopping to talk to me...Or let me pass on what he'd bought, I noted to myself

with bizarre annoyance...Despite the fact that he was the last person I needed to see just right

now...

Still...I'd be willing to bet he'd be playing for me...For me and unknowingly for...

Well...I suppose it stands to reason a female "justice" demon would know a little obstetrics and

gynecology...

And I had to believe her...She'd been as shocked as me...And rather...Annoyed...

Just like...She'd sighed...Eyeing me...Frowning...

In a century when birth control is readily available, Halfreck had shaken her head...

So...It goes without saying that I was in no mood to discuss what my demonic friend had told

me...Hell, I didn't even want to think about it...

Course...It did occur to me even in my shock that Halfreck seemed a tad...Jealous...After sensing

my little bundle of joy...And terror...

Maybe her motives were not purely dutiful here...All the more reason to be calm and think things

through...Rather than run screaming down the hall like I initially wanted to...

But in all of that fear, repulsion, intense need to barf, and serious desire to take one more pound

at my Blondie...I hafta say...There was just a little...Wonder and joy...

If only I could tell him...I did think that...For all of a crazy half-second...But...

"Looks like I don't get the walk home..." Tara mildly joked as Dawn and I returned to her...

Blondie has a pressing engagement, she noted...Said to tender his regrets and thanks for a

delightful evening...

Phew...I thought...

I can't deal with him just now...Too much screaming around the ole noggin...

Of course...Thought popped up...Involuntarily...

Sex sure would be nice right now...God, could I use the tension release...And that corridor where

I met Halfreck was still empty...

Hell, just to have him hold me for a minute...

Right...And in that minute let him know my "joyous" news, perhaps...?

Not the way to go just now...Even if the worst was already done... Cruel to restart the thing...

Though he was the one who'd left...Without a word...

And equally cruel to tell him...Especially before I'd made a decision...

However...he had been talking to Ms. Macluay for a while...I was understandably curious on

that score...Even if unwilling to divulge my own information...

And I needed Tara's help...Cicely's memories were coming too slowly and in too small

fragments...I needed some way to pull them together...And get answers even my "guardian

demon" couldn't...Or wouldn't...Give...

I also needed to talk...Well...Put my head on someone's shoulder and cry...

Like Will, I'd sensed something of Mom in Tara...And this was emphatically not something for

Dawn to hear about, let alone comfort me on...

And well...yeah...The jealous ex-lover kinda wanted to know how that first "date" had gone for

Tara...

However much she claimed to be kidding in calling it that...

It didn't occur to me that he seemed to be anxious to avoid me in his turn...

Though did I mention?...It did miff me that he was heading straight off without saying good-

bye...

Again...

And this time I hadn't given him cause to go...

Just when I had such interesting news...I thought irrationally...Looking down the main corridor

where he'd gone...

News that I couldn't possibly tell him...I pulled myself up short again...

Couldn't...Possibly...I noted firmly to myself...

Hey...A hopeful thought occurred to me...Maybe that's what really happened...

Maybe I...Cicely really didn't do anything...Maybe Will just ran off that night...Late for a poetry

reading or something, courtesy of Halfreck messing with his watch or the nearest clock...

Yeah...Sure...

After all, anything was better than asking myself the real questions...

What the hell I was gonna do now?...Carrying William the Bloody's baby...

Why had I allowed the death and condemnation of the man I...Cicely...loved?...The father of her

child as well, I'd gathered in part from Halfreck's annoyed "Just like..."...In part from

my...our...own surfacing memories...

Or the buried question I refused to let surface...

Was it all happening...Again?...

"The Leader of the Order..." Travers paused... "Is one Fryn..."

He passed a sketch across the table and over to the silent man sitting across from him...

Rupert Giles...Who eyed the sketch a bit wryly...

Hardly a menacing type, this one...Can't be more than five feet tall, he noted to

himself...Otherwise your typical vampire demon in work face...Rather ridiculously sweet-looking

even in demon face...

Dear Quentin is up to something...Bringing me here to discuss this little fellow...

"Don't let his appearance fool you, Rupert..." Travers leaned back in his armchair...

The Order is powerful and well-organized thanks to him...And ready to take advantage of the

coming opportunity...

Giles looked back at the Chairman of the Royal Council of Librarians and Library Scientists...

Or Council of Watchers to those in the know...

"You didn't have me called in here over this fellow, Quentin..." he smiled...

We barely consulted over Glory, let alone the countless other world-destroying menaces and

maniacs Buffy faced back in Sunnydale...he quietly pointed out...Waiting...

Travers watched him, pressing his folded hands to his chin...Smiling faintly...

"It is a serious situation, Rupert...And I want the best on the job..."

Giles took in the room...Large, with carved dark walnut paneling...A huge and cheery fireplace

burning brightly...Oriental rug, priceless no doubt...And likely a trophy from some passed

Slayer's victory...on the floor...

And they say the Watcher's life is without reward...he teased himself silently...

He smiled over at Travers...

"You want me back in Sunnydale in order to win back Buffy Summers' services..."

Travers smiled back noncommitally...

"You'd need her help, that's certain..." he eyed Giles... "And judging by her actions recently,

she needs her old Watcher..."

"What Buffy needs..." Giles paused...

"I can't give her..."

I see...the Chairman stared at him...

"Then perhaps I should open negotiations with William the Bloody?..."

He certainly has her confidence these days...And more...A slight leering edge came faintly into

his voice...

Giles frowned...He had missed that one coming...Despite all the evidence of Buffy's growing

affection even before her death...

"To return to Sunnydale now would set Buffy back in her development...She's trying to

overcome a resurrection, Quentin...If she isn't forced to resume a normal life...On her own..."

Hard to do that if she's sacrificed by the Order...Travers smiled...

"Buffy Summers can deal with vampires, sir..." Giles frowned at the Chairman...Pushing back

his glasses...

Generally...I'd agree with you, Rupert...Travers nodded...

"But there have been developments...Both by the Order and their allies..."

And in her...

"We've monitored her and her relationship with William the Bloody from a distance..."

Naturally never considering the possibility of sending her some assistance in the form of a lucky

lottery ticket or forgotten deceased relative leaving her a few quid...Giles thought...

Just waiting for the moment when she'd be desperate enough to agree to any terms and

conditions you set...Bastard...he noted to himself...

"That surveillance has yielded some rather interesting information..." Travers continued...

"It appears your "little girl" has had a past life relationship with our friend William...And is

currently pregnant by him..."

Never thought I'd ever get to see Rupert Giles drop his teacup in shock...Travers thought, well

satisfied by his bombshell's effect...

"A ticket on the 11:00 pm flight to Los Angeles is waiting for you at Heathrow..." he smiled...

"But, first, as to the Order and its Sunnydale allies..." he resumed...

No...Giles frowned, standing abruptly...

This little fellow can wait...He pushed Fryn's dossier and sketch away...

First...I want details on this "past life"...Proof of...he paused...What you've told me about

her...Everything you have ever held back from us on William the Bloody...And all possible

information on human-demon...Matings...

After I'm satisfied there, I'll discuss this "vital mission"...he eyed Travers...

"I've spoken to Halfreck..." Buffy told Tara as they sat...

Having sent Dawn to fetch sodas...

Tara nodded, listening...

"She didn't tell me much..." Buffy paused...

"Don't trust her too far, Buffy..." Tara looked at her...

She has had dealings with Spike in the past...Her interest in you is not just carrying out her

"job"...Or whatever we choose to call it...

"I know..." Buffy eyed her... "That's why I need to get more info...And confirm what's she

telling me..."

I've been having...Memory flashes...

Cicely's memory flashes...she looked at the Wiccan...

"And there's more..." she hesitated...

Tara stared at her...

Dawn was on her way back, having done her soda run in record time...Anxious to miss nothing...

They saw her coming...Buffy casting a cautious look at Tara...

"Can we meet later?...At your place, maybe before Patrol?...Say ten, maybe?..."

Sure...Tara nodded...

Thank you...Buffy looked steadily at her...

She's prettier than I realized...she thought...And so kind...

He told her things about Halfreck...Maybe he does like her...

Oh, God...I am jealous...At a time like this...I'm jealous of William the Bloody...

Please, please let it be the hormones...Buffy thought...

"Hey guys...?" Dawn came up...Clearly eager for details...

"Dawny picked out the nicest shoes..." Buffy noted, smiling faintly...

Tara nodding...

Dawn frowning and rolling her eyes...Guys...? C'mon...

She and Dawn left a few moments later...Dawn visibly sulking at the lack of fresh info...

Buffy stared back at Tara as she left...Honestly intending it to be another "thank you"...

However...Tara saw it also carried another emotion...

Uh-oh...Got a feeling I'd better not invest too much emotional capital in my relationship with

William...Tara thought...Sighing...

But...If this means what I think it means...I am glad for him...If we can help him...

After all, like Will...I'm a hopeless romantic...And a fool for love...Tara noted...

But the sly thought couldn't be kept down...She was only human, after all...

Buffy Summers...The Slayer...Is jealous of me...?

Me?...

It was true that Violadus Fryn, Leader of the Order of Saint Vitulus...Patron "saint" of

vampires...Was not exactly the "menacing" type...

But as he himself often reflected...Many evil things come in small, unassuming packages...

Look at the Anointed One...

Though he hoped to have more success than that ill-fated child...

And unlike the grandiose, bellicose past foes of the Slayer...He operated in shadow...And

with patience and care...

Making the most of any allies he came across...Unlike a egotistical loner like Angelis...Or the at

least somewhat more practical William the Bloody...

The underworld had suffered many a defeat at the hands of the Greatest Slayer of All Time...Her

reputation now immeasurably enhanced by the defeat of the goddess Glory...And the rumors of

her return from the grave...

Hell, she even had fans among Sunnydale's underdwellers now... "That Buffy Summers...Gotta

hand it to her..."

And running into the Slayer had become the excuse of choice for any and all failures...

"Well...See...We ran into The Slayer and..."

But...We'll get her next time...Maybe...

All of which contributed to a new-found sense of caution among her adversaries...And an

opportunity for a quiet, methodical planner type like Fryn...

He finally persuaded his compatriots around the world, but most importantly in Sunnydale to

study, rather than headlong attack, the Slayer...Act as his eyes and ears until a true and well-

thought out plan of action could be formed...

One that would take advantage of the coming crucial opportunity...

And as he expected...Enormous dividends were coming in...

The Slayer had human enemies...To his spies, ridiculous ones...But he respected human

science...While his own career had taught him it was best to overlook outward appearances...

And over time he'd learned they possessed some remarkable skills...

And seemed equally dedicated to the Slayer's destruction...

Anya and Xander had chosen to pay a late call on the Summers...Just in hopes of catching them

after their Mall experience with Spike...

Just a causal call...Not wanting to pry of course...

"So..." Anya brightly smiled...Sitting with her newly regained beloved in the Summers' living

room...Seeking the right conversational opening...

"Did you and Tara come to blows over William?..."

Honey...Dawny...Xander hissed...

"Sorry..." Anya twisted to look at Dawn who eyed her...

"I meant...Did you both hit Spike tonight?..."

For valid reasons, of course...

More of those eggs or something...she paused...

So that's where those scars on Will came from...Dawn eyed her sister...

"He behaved himself..." Buffy replied coldly...Glaring a bit...

"Buffy spoke to your friend, Halfreck.." Dawn noted...With bright innocence as her sister

directed a glare her way...

Oh...Anya stared at Buffy...

"What did she say?..."

She confirmed some of what you and Xander told me...Buffy eyed her...Frowning...

But Xander noticed a trembling...

Buf...? he thought...

God, if that "Horrorfreck" has upset her...

"But she didn't care to stay and answer a lot of questions..." Buffy finished...

"Haly was always the impatient type..." Anya nodded...

"What did you guys tell Buffy?..." Dawn looked at them all...

Geesch...I've seen a zillion demons and nearly been killed lots of times...Can't I be trusted with

one little bit of...? she groused...

"I'm pr-pre-pregnant..." Buffy burst out...Sobbing as she desperately hugged Anya...

"Oh...Honey..." Anya hugged her...

Xander and Dawn stared at her, mouths open...Same thought...

I just wanted to know a little more about the Halfreck thing...

Did not need this much info...Really did not...

Buffy and Anya had vamoosed to the kitchen...Buffy in deep shame mode had begged Dawn

not to follow...Apologizing so sincerely and tearfully...For everything...Dawn couldn't bring

herself to grouse...

Xander took up a standing position in the hallway between kitchen and living room...Utterly

uncertain as to what to do...

Hopeful that it would involve staking Spike...

The sounds of sobbing had settled down...Xander was edging towards the living room...Not

quite off-duty yet...

Dawn flipped channels nervously...And stared in shock at the TV...

Xander looked...Holy...?

"Hey, guys!..." Dawn called...

Guys?...

The ladies reluctantly emerged...Buffy red-eyed and puffy but looking a hair better...

Anya concerned...Helpful...But clearly pleased for once to be "comforter"...

She looked at Xander...Good?...her look said...

Excellent...he nodded...But...Buffy...His quick glance said...

"We're going over to Tara's..." Buffy began...

I need to...she paused...

Look at this...Dawn interrupted, pointing at the TV...

"Dawn!..." Buffy frowned...

That's an adult cable channel after 10...

"But look..." Dawn insisted...

Whoa...

A even more dopey and morose-looking than usual Jonathan sat in a chair...To the

accompaniment of Warren's voice-over ...

"Sunnydale guys?...Are you bored?...Are you lonely?..."

Well...Your suffering is over...

A rather dim-looking young woman entered the room...And plastically smiled for the camera,

sitting in Jonathan's lap...

Buffy...

"It's the bot..." Dawn looked at Buffy in horror...

God I hope so she thought...

Sis has been so desperate for cash recently...

Buffy blinked...Anya blinked...Xander blinked...

"Sugar and spice may make a girl nice..." Warren's voice went on...

But ours are durable for a life-time...

The bot raised an arm and pressing her wrist, caused the magnetic seam to separate, exposing

the internal arm structure...

"A artificial woman designed to your demanding specifications..."

They all watched in horror as the bot obligingly demonstrated her "specifications"...

"How the hell...?" Buffy whispered in shock...

God...she closed her eyes...I know how...He gave my "specifications" for that thing to that

piece of...

On the other hand...Thank God...Something to take my mind off...

Hmmn...Looks like I have another good staking reason...Xander thought...

Still...He eyed Anya who was eyeing him...Can't really say if it's a valid reason for

termination of our head clerk...In all fairness, he'll probably help to hunt the little geeks

down now...

And Buffy hasn't said she how wants the vampiral father of her child dealt with...

"Call now...And place an order for the woman of your dreams..." Warren's voice intoned...

Strangely...Jonathan did not look any happier with the bot in his lap fervently kissing him...

"Did anyone get their number?...Xander?..." Buffy asked quietly...

Me?...Why me?...Xander looked at her...

Sunrise...Part XI...

Much to her surprise...Slight dismay, considering Buffy's earlier request to visit...And secret

pleasure...Tara had a different visitor at ten pm than the one she'd expected...

A rather embarrassed Spike...Who, after pacing round her place for a good fifteen minutes

following his meeting with Agent Finn, had finally decided "what the hell?" and knocked...

A call from Buffy just before his entrance...Requesting an hour or so's grace...Allowed her to

offer him a few minutes...

The news she'd given him...About Cicely...Had thrown him, he confessed...

Was there any way...? he hesitated...

To be sure?...Tara finished...

Well...Difficult...Without Buffy's consensual participation...she paused...

But was it likely Halfreck would lie about something like this?...

Besides...To be honest...Buffy had told her she'd started having memory flashes...

"Ummn...Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that..." she paused...

Never heard a word...Spike grinned a moment...Then cautiously asked her...

Clearly bracing himself...she noted...

"How did she?..." he looked at her...

Take it?...Tara finished...

Well...she sighed...

"It's an awful lot to deal with Will...Especially this year..."

Don't ask too much of her too fast...Give her time...Tara told him gently...

He eyed her...A very kind lady...Joyce...And Mum...Reborn...

"Ummn...Tara..." he looked sheepishly at her...

She put up a hand...

It's ok, William...I understand...

"It's very nice of you to be so considerate of my feelings..." she smiled...

I do like you Will...she grinned wryly...Guess it's the romantic in us both...But I'm fine...she

nodded...

No damage done...And no intentions of contacting Ms. Halfreck in a fit...

"Actually it's Willow who's probably getting the bad deal here..." she looked down...

But anyway...Like I said...I can't do much about proving the reincarnation without Buffy's

consent...

She looked at him...

Should I tell him?...she thought...The poor guy's so desperate for any crumb of hope...No...It's

Buffy's...Cicely's...right to tell him that she did...does love him...

If even she realizes it...

"What about Cicely?" Spike stared at her...

Is there any way to find out...What happened to her?...

"It might give a clue as to the truth...If she was really a Slayer for instance..."

Hmmn... "Wealthy socialite found with throat torn out in maniac's den"...Tara thought...

Do we really want to look up that kind of a headline...?

Or...Maybe more likely...

"Wealthy socialite celebrates 50th wedding anniversary to...fill-in suitable mate..."

Still he's so anxious...And it might confirm things...At least provide info Buffy will want as

well...

Best of all...We don't even have to use magics...

"Well...If you really want to...We could try using Willow and Giles' stuff for net searching back

issues of the Times...They go way back since they put the microfiche stuff on disk..." she noted...

Selling sexbots...On adult cable channel 340?

With my copy as the demo?...

God, those morons must be getting desperate for cash to pull a stunt like that...But odds are I

wouldn't have ever seen their damned "commercial" if Dawn hadn't gone flipping channels

where she shouldn't...

Gotta get that channel block installed...

I asked Xander to call the station...As an interested consumer who somehow missed the

number...

Of course it would be some general telemarket thing...But at some point one of our little rascals

would have to call in or better yet, stop by, and collect orders, if any...

If worst came to worst we could always order one...And grab the delivery boy which ever one of

them it was...

Hey...I kidded...Maybe we could order a Riley-bot...

Cleverly avoiding the Spike-bot option...

Not that I fooled any of them...

The guys seemed surprised at how relatively calmly I took it...A copy of me in the nerds'

hands...Making out on cable TV with Jonathan...Fortunately for my dear Jonathan not beyond

a little passionate necking and minor lap dance...Life in prison can't compare to what I'd have

done to him otherwise...

But...Compared to my current situation...Pregnant by Spike and revealed to be his former

beloved from 1880?...Piece of cake, I assure you...

And I did say...Relative calm...

It was actually good to get the blood pumping over the thought of ripping Warren apart...Forget

about the real problems of life for a while...

Besides, the thought in the back of my mind...Might be nice to have the bot around to help

out...If and when...

"You suppose she's the original?..." Xander eyed me... "Just repaired?...We never did find the

torso when Spike and I went back to get it..."

Probably I noted...Hardly likely Warren would go to the trouble of making a new one if he could

just slap the old girl back together...

Hell, she was half cannibalized from April in the first place...

Anya however had her own questions...

"What kind of girl will you be ordering, honey?..." she asked...

Ummn...Never...thought...about...it, sweetheart...he wisely replied...

"Any ideas...?" he asked brightly...

The Powers That Be are clearly smiling on Xander Harris this year...

***.

The brief obituary of one Miss Cicely Addams...Died six months after William's tragic

disappearance...Cause of death...Politely unmentioned...Survived by grieving parents, etc...

"Dead...Just six months later...?" Spike looked at Tara...

These are microfilmed from some of the old records of the London hospitals at that time...Tara

pointed at a second open window on the screen...There's a hospital record for a young woman by

that name...Rushed in as an emergency...Day before the obit appeared...

Deceased in childbirth...Mother of a baby girl, stillborn...

Tara felt William trembling next to her...Unable to look at him...

"I didn't...I didn't know..." he stammered... "I stayed away from her...After..."

She never told me...If she even knew then...

He stared at Tara...

"That must have been why..." he paused...

"You see...In those days...It was a big..."

I understand...Tara nodded...He was barely able to go on...

All these years...And he never knew...

"But why didn't she tell me?...God, she must have kept it...After I died, she decided to keep

it...you think...?" he looked at her...

"I'm so sorry...I'm sorry Will...I shouldn't have..." she felt his hand and finally looked at

him...And saw the tears starting down his face...

"Thank you, Tara...I wondered...Oh...God...If...I had...Known..." he paused, unable to go on...

My...poor...Cicely...

"Will...Will...It wasn't your fault...You couldn't have helped them..." Tara murmured gently

taking him in her arms...Rocking him as he sobbed...

Finally mourning his century-dead baby daughter...And her mother...

Andrew held the freeze ray at the ready...Jonathan, a fire extinguisher filled with holy water

strapped to his back...Crossbow in his hands...

Like I could use this thing...he thought...Sulking...

Fearless Leader Warren had requested a conference with his new "friend"...The newly arrived

to Sunnydale Violadus Fryn...

Odd...Nerd humans pairing with nerd vampires, one of Fryn's devoted assistants noted to

herself...

Not meaning to defy her sire and lord, of course...Merely a statement of fact...

After all...Despite his patient and tolerate nature...Those who truly defied Fryn learned

quickly...Often at the hands of their closest but sadly, well-paid friends...That a small nerd with

power, wealth, and connections can wield a surprising amount of wrath...

Hell, look at Bill Gates...And he's nothing compared to milord...she thought loyally...

Up to now they'd only communicated via intermediary...But both leaders felt it was time to

coordinate their activities...And size each other up...

Little geek...each thought...Eyeing each other...

Still, as geeks...Respectively human and vampiral...They also could sense unique abilities in

each other...

"My dear friend..." Fryn began expansively...

So good to finally meet you and your compatriots...

"This is the time for like-minded humans and the underworld to unite in common cause against

our adversary..." he smiled...

O...K...Warren eyed him...

Strutting little Napoleon isn't he?...he thought...

"Lets be clear on this...Mr. Fryn..." Warren replied...

"We are the crime lords of Sunnydale...In this town the Trio holds sway..."

Once the Slayer is dealt with of course...

Fryn nodded...A vampiral leader with consideration and above all, respect...

Former minor Mob accountant, after all...The one who'd lost Al Capone's tax records in fact...

And suffered for it...Dreadfully...

Though that was all water under the bridge...He'd more than paid Al back with the help of a

female vampiress and her bloodborne illness...

But he retained a sense of the proprieties...A local leader must be treated with respect in his or

her territory...

"Of course Mr. Mears...My people have been instructed along those lines...And have followed

instructions, I trust..." he eyed his local staff...

No problems so far...Warren nodded...They've been very helpful in getting us what we need...

"Well..." Fryn smiled... "As to the current situation...The coming ceremony offers us a golden

opportunity to destroy Ms. Summers once and for all...By pooling our efforts against her...Our

victory is certain..."

"Just what is this ceremony, anyway?..." Jonathan put in...Nervously...

Ah...Fryn grinned...Visibly enthusiastic...

Let me tell you the story...he began, waving a hand...An assistant unfolded a chair...

Nothing the boss likes better than to give a history lesson...his female assistant thought...

Hope we don't have to kill these creeps...she eyed the "Trio"...

All that fat and oil...After all...We are what we eat...

"The ceremony began with the ancient Druids..." Fryn explained...

When first a sect of them summoned the dark forces through the Gates of Hell...

Cute little guy, Andrew noted...Make a great Xmas toy...

Sunrise...Part XII...

A returned Willow was perturbed to find Dawn and Xander nervously scanning adult cable

channels...

Ummn...Guys?...she stared at the screen...

It's ok...This is research...Dawn murmured at she flicked channels...

Yeah...Xander nodded in agreement...Research...

We're trying to find the nerds...he explained...

"On cable channel 340...?" Willow eyed them...

Whoa...Dawn blinked at the screen...

Anya does that much better Xander thought...

"Where are Buffy and Anya...?" Willow asked them...

And why are they letting you do this?...she thought...

"Tara's..." Dawn told her, continuing to flick through channels...

Holy...her eyes bulging...

Not even the sight of a "zillion" demons had prepared her for that...

"Ummn...Maybe you better let me keep checking for the commercial, Dawny..." Xander

nervously...

Great idea...Dawn looked at him blankly...

"I'll go make some cocoa..." she nodded... Blinking as she walked into the kitchen...

Some lines into adulthood I can wait to cross, she thought...

"It's not all like that, Dawny..." Willow called to her...Turning to Xander...

"Xander...What the hell were you thinking?..."she hissed...

He explained about the nerds' little "commercial"...

"Didn't get the phone number and couldn't reach anyone at the cable channel's phone number

tonight so we thought..."

Bad thought...Willow glared at him...

Very bad thought...

Buffy asked us to find the number...he finished lamely...

She frowned...

But...Why did they go over to Tara's?...

"Something about Will...er Spike..." Xander explained...

"Tara's found something?...About the resurrection spell?..." Willow looked at him...

Well...Not exactly...See...

Anya had a talk with Halfreck...Who had some interesting news for Buffy...And they had a talk at

the Mall later...

Halfreck...? Willow stared at him...

The maniac vengeance demon had "news" for Buffy...?

But the real news...Is ...Xander paused...

Hmmn...Did Buffy really want this spread around?...he pondered...Oh well, too late now...

Still, might be best to leave it to her to tell Willow...

"Hey, guys!..." Dawn called from the kitchen...

Giles left a message on the machine...

"He's coming home...For a visit anyway..."

"Is that the news...?" Willow grinned at Xander...

He emailed me tonight...I got it on the library computer when I checked...

"Did Xander tell you Buffy's pregnant by Spike?..." Dawn asked, emerging from the kitchen

with a thermos-ful of cocoa and mugs...

"Like I said...The real news..." Xander smiled wanly...

Tara had suggested to Will that he leave before Buffy and Anya came over...

Neither party in this relationship quite ready to deal just yet...

"Will you...Let me know...?" Spike looked at her...

If Buffy lets me, Will...Tara looked back...

But...I will promise not to tell her anything we learned tonight unless you agree...

"Might be a bit much for her at that..." he nodded ruefully...

Best to wait on it I guess...

Well...I'm off...he smiled...

"Will..." Tara called to him as he reached the door...

She does care...Whatever she may say...

"And so do I..." she paused...

"Will...?"

"What a beautiful little girl she must have been...If the soul was anything like her father's..."

she finished...Smiling at him...

"Thank you..." he paused... Hand on the knob...

I don't deserve it of course...But thank you...

"And for..."

She nodded shyly and he was out the door...William the Bloody, family man...At least in

Heaven...she thought...

With regret...

"So.." Warren summed up Fryn's dissertation...

"We provide you and your people access to the Slayer...You destroy her...And her little

playmate..."

A delightful fringe benefit...Fryn smiled...He leaned forward in his chair anxiously...

"But can you do it?...At the specified place and time?..."

We can...Warren smiled back...

We've practically got William the Bloody in our grip now...

And once Spike is in our hands...So is Buffy...

She loves him that much...? Fryn stared...

Human hearts move in mysterious ways...Warren noted...

But she'll come for him...I guarantee it...

Jonathan frowned...Andrew giggled...

"A pity about William..." Fryn shook his head...

"He was such a magnificent killer in his day..."

Love brings out the worst in people...he sighed...

But...He and the Slayer will make an excellent joint sacrifice...Worthy of the ceremony...

"Well..." Warren eyed him... "Just have your people standing by on Friday...We'll do the rest..."

"Excellent, Mr. Mears..." Fryn nodded, rising from his chair...Taken immediately by an aide...

"I look forward to many long years of mutually beneficial association with the Lords of

Sunnydale..." he smiled...Waving his followers on and following them out...

Do we trust this guy?...Jonathan came over to Warren after Fryn was out of sight and earshot...

Of course not...Warren eyed him...But we deal with him after Spike and Buffy...

We deal with the vampire king...After killing the Slayer?...Jonathan thought...

Somehow I see a flaw in the logic there...he frowned...

So...? Andrew came over...

"He seemed nice...But..."

He looked at his partners...

"Buffy and Spike are a couple?..." he asked...

Andrew...Warren sighed...

We've been following them for the past two months...Fryn's people watching them as

well...We've all seen the video and audio tapes of them together...

"Hell, why do you think Spike is trying to raise so much cash so quick...?"

"Well...I thought they were just friends..." Andrew explained...

Preg...nant?...Tara stared at Buffy...Who glumly nodded...

By Will?...

Yeah, yeah...Buffy shook her head...

Anya patted her shoulder...Still happily retaining her "chief comforter" role...

What?...Buffy eyed the Wiccan...

"Nothing..." Tara smiled wanly...

Just caught me by surprise...That's all...

Me too...Buffy looked down...

So...History does repeat itself...Tara thought...

"I need to know more about Cicely...And about...This..." Buffy told her...

Hmmn-hmmn...Tara nodded...Yeah...I can see that...

I know wouldn't want to find something hideous crawling around in there if it was me...she

thought...

Still, Angel's Connor came out ok...So far...Tara noted to herself...

And I'd prefer an additional source besides Halfreck...Buffy went on...

"So...You two won't be fighting to the death over William?..." Anya asked brightly...

Not tonight...Tara smiled...

Hmmn...Good thing Cordelia moved to LA...Buffy thought, eyeing Anya...

"Buffy!..." Willow practically hopped out of her skin as I came in the door with Anya...Just after

midnight...

They told you...I eyed a sheepish Xander...

Dawny having wisely chosen the path of discretion and vamoosed off to bed...

"What are you gonna do?...What did Tara say?...Have you told Spike?"

Don't know...

She's gotta get prepared...We'll try something...In private...Tomorrow...

No...And no one is gonna...I stared at her...

She paused...Looking...

"Buffy..." she closed her eyes, shook her head, pursing her lips...And stared at me...

It will be ok...she took my hand...

"Will..." I hugged her, bursting into tears again...

How could I have been so stupid?...I whispered...

We'll get you through this...I promise...she whispered...

What am I gonna do about him?...I pleaded, still whispering...

"We won't let him hurt you..." she said firmly...I'll find out how he got this hold over you...

And deal with him...

No...I pulled back...

Willow...Don't...You haven't?...

"I love him, Willow...Don't hurt him..."

She stared at me...Buffy?...

"Did you order your robo-girl yet?..." Anya whispered to Xander as they watched us...

"Waiting for your input, honey..." he wisely replied...She nodded happily...

"Oh...Buffy..." Anya called over...Pleased to have some good news at last...

"Xander says Giles is coming home...For a visit..."

Some new menace rearing its head, so the Council is sending him...she smiled brightly...

Oh...God...Giles...

Any other time...Glorious news...

Just right now...Oh...God...When he finds out...

Just like when Papa found out...the thought popped in my head...

I insisted on making at least a quick Patrol...Alone...

Had to have some quiet time...And terminated any long-winded speeches by my victims rather

harshly...

Naturally...I turned a corner and...

"Well..." Spike eyed me...

Fancy meeting you here...

"Go away..." I told him...

This is not the night to pester me...

"Just wanted to see if you needed any help on Patrol..." he smiled...

I'm fine...Go away...

"Just looking out for the Nibs' interest..." he noted...

Friendly concern and all that...

Besides...You're an employee of the Magic Box now...he grinned...

Tell him...A traitorous voice cried out inside...Will...We're...

"Will..."

Ummn...

"Have you heard?...Giles is coming for a visit..." Brightly...

He frowned...

What?...I stared at him...

"Why is he coming?..."

Oh...I waved...The Council wants him to check on me...There's some new vamp scooting

around...

He stopped...

And began a rapid-fire interrogation...Who?...How many in the group?...Why was the Council

concerned?...Why was Giles concerned enough to come back?...Is this one powerful?...Where

is he?...What's his plan?...

I coulda kissed him right there and then...But...Heck?...Had somebody told him?...I chose a glare

instead...Dammit if Xander or Dawn said a word...

"I can deal...And if I knew who and where...I'd be there now..."

I want to talk to Rupert when he gets here...Spike insisted...

I...Can...Deal...I groused at him...

Thank you, William...I told him a tad more graciously...

He eyed me...Seemed to be thinking something over...

"Let me help you, Cicely...Please..." he looked at me...

Sunrise...Part XIII...

So...He knows...Buffy eyes him...

No point in "Cicely?...Who's...?"...I guess...

He doesn't look at her directly...Choosing to begin scanning for anything "out there"...

But clearly...Waiting...For her reaction...

"I am not Cicely, Will..." Buffy looks at him...

Whoever I may have been back then...

However...She can't help...

"But I guess you weren't quite the "always been bad, baby" guy you led me to believe..." she

grins at him...

He sighs and shrugs...

"Would you have believed William the Bloody that night...Telling you what a nice gentlemanly

little fellow he once was?..."

She frowned...

But it slips in...In spite of her resolve...

"You were always...Different...William..." a faint smile...

"Cicely..." he turns to her...

Buffy puts up a hand...

"I'm sorry...I shouldn't have..."

"I know you've been remembering Cicely, Buffy..." he pauses...

Tara shouldn't have...she frowns...

"It makes no difference Spike..."

"It makes all the difference...Cicely..."

You have to see that...If you've started to remember...he begins...

"There are things you don't know...About us..." he takes her hand...

She pulls away...

"No...Enough...I am not going down that path, Spike..."

Cicely Addams is long dead, William...I'm sorry...she looks at him coldly...

"Sorry...Again..." he looks at her...And nods...

All right...he looks away...

"You made the break back at my crypt...I've respected that..." he says slowly...

But at least let me try to help you...And maybe...Someday...

He pauses...

"Then we could talk again..." he stares at her...

If only in the afterlife...

I watched him standing there...Don't do this to him...A voice called within me...

Don't do this to yourself...

But Tara and Willow...? If they find something...?

Like what?...Angel's curse?...

And what about?...

But I already know what I have to do there...And to tell him...Or even let him find out...Is just

cruel...

I've got to end this now...Get him to go...

For his sake as much as mine...

But...Something was holding me back...Cicely's love and concern...Or remorse...for

William?...Maybe...

My love for him?...Possibly...

But a big part was simply a jealous... "I suppose Tara will cut right in with tea and sympathy..."

And, hell...Nobody cuts in on the Slayer's boyfriend...

"Just let me help..." Spike continued...

I have good references...he smiled...

I shook my head...

"Will..." I paused...

The girl you loved is gone...

Whether she loved you or not...She's gone...

And telling me the details is not gonna bring her back...

"How did ole Henry make out with finals...?" he suddenly asked...

He was worried...I replied without thinking...

Kind of you to ask William...I smiled...

Whoa...

"Dammit, Spike..."

He grinned...

"Your cousin Henry was the best friend I ever had, Cicely...I'm very glad I never thought to look

him up after..."

I glared...

"I'll see you at work tomorrow, Ms. Summers..." he smiled...Cutting off any further discussion as

he strode on...

Sure to double back and continue following me I knew...

My sweet Will...Damn him...No...I thought hastily, looking for Halfreck...

No more damning...Especially of William Soames Walthrop...

My poor Will...What am I gonna do...?

He didn't deserve this fate...And he doesn't deserve to suffer...When I do...The only thing I can

do...

But I can't kill him...Even if it would be releasing him...

Thank God...Giles is coming home...

Even if he is gonna kill me when he finds out...

Wait...A...Minute...

I broke it off?...At the crypt?...

And he's "respected" that?...

What the...?

At 7:15 am the next morning, the buzzer at Tara's rang incessantly...

"Willow?..." Tara looked at her as she stood on her doorstep...

"Hi...God, it's good to see you and the old place..." Willow smiled...For a second...

Then, striding in, she glared at her...

"Just what the hell is going on with Spike and Buffy?...Why the hell didn't you tell me?..."

Who the hell's this "Cicely"...?

Ummn...

Good to see you too...Tara replied...

"Not a word..." Dawn looked at me...Nodding...

Mum as the grave...

Just keep it that way...I replied...

11am...I'd reluctantly agreed to let Dawn miss school...Special occasion...

Ok...I needed back-up...

Giles was due any second...

Naturally I'd fully rehearsed our course of action...

Not a word...All was well...

Spike?...Oh...Fine...Working for Anya now...

Of course if Giles had any useful resurrection/redemption data...The poor guy had being trying so

hard...

But all was as well as could be expected...What with Mom gone and my recent resurrection...And

our bills...And my lost college career...And that vicious weasel Mears hanging around...And this

new threat, whatever it was...

But no problems on the Spike front...None whatsoever...

"Buffy!...Dawn!..." he called from the front steps...

Giles!...I ran into his arms...Sobbing...

"I'm pregnant...Spike's the father...I'm sorry...Giles!..." I blurted...

"Don't kill him...Please..." I hastily added...

I'm so ashamed...I sobbed...

And oh, God...Giles...I'm...We think...I'm the reincarnation of Spike's old girl...From when he

was human...

To my surprise...He didn't bat an eye...

That English reserve...Will has it too...In his own version...

One thing I wish I had retained from Cicely...

Yes...he sighed, patting her...I know all about it, Buffy...

"You do...?" Buffy stared at him...

Hell, does the Council keep my place bugged or something?...she thought...

It will be all right...He pulled back and looked her in the eyes...

"And you've nothing to be ashamed of...My dear girl..." he told her...

God...Dawn thought...I knew she'd cave the moment he came in...

Looks like Xander Harris owes me ten bucks...she thought happily...

Sunrise...Part XIV...

Giles explained his amazing grasp of the situation...

So...Quentin Travers has been keeping his little eye on me?...Nice to know I still rate his

attention...

Going to all that trouble to maintain surveillance he and the Council might of offered me some

cash at least...Geesch...

Wants to dominate the world behind the scenes but wouldn't cough up a few thousand to get me

back on his team...

Not that I'd have taken it, of course...

Well...Maybe as a reward for my past service to Humanity...And for dying to save the world from

Glory's little interdimensional tunnel project...

Without any strings attached of course...

Giles felt it was best that I proceed as planned and consult with Tara later when we met at the

shop...

Which I assured him had neither blown up or burned to the ground under Anya's tender care...

And where Anya and Xander were, with the diligent help of their head clerk no doubt,

preparing a little party...Anya frantically readying both books and shop for inspection by her

returned "silent" partner...

Under no circumstances should I call on Halfreck again...At least, not alone...

Her particular type of demon was famous for deviousness and deception...No offense intended

towards dear Anya, he noted hastily, relieved to hear she was back at the shop...

The same went for Spike...he eyed me carefully...

At least until you're prepared to deal with him...

As for...My condition...

Well...He could and would assist Tara in her checking me over...Definitely not to be done at the

shop, I stressed...While Willow assisted nonmagically...

But...If I had already reached my decision...And was satisfied it was the best way...

He understood...And perhaps it was the best, maybe the only way...Even considering Angel's

luck with Connor...

In any case...The final decision was up to me, he stressed...

Well...To me...And whatever was left of Cicely in me...

We talked about her as well...Her sudden blossoming in my mind, following Halfreck's

announcement...

Not unusual, Giles noted...Often it takes an unusual event to trigger a past life to surface...

"And a resurrection counts as preety unusual, I guess..." I grinned wanly at him...

But...Was she always there?...Waiting for her chance?...Or just so much a part of me I never

realized...?

"My dear...If I knew answers like that...Your finances would be the responsibility of the Council

of Watchers by decree of its new Chairman..."

Please...I teased...Giles, you could outwit Quentin Travers and the rest any day...On quarter

brain-power...

"You just need a scheming, ambitious wife to push you into the big chair...I hear Halfreck is

available..."

Maybe she's not so bad looking in human face...

He sighed...And gently smiled...

"It's good to have you home, Giles..." I told him...Taking his hand...

Forgive the clinging but there are some times...

"Indeed there are, my dear..." he nodded...

Oh...The thought of William, alone...passed through my mind...

Not even a Dru to ease his loneliness and torment now...

I brushed it aside...He has us now, after all...

But...If I drive him away...

Tomorrow...After I see Tara later today...Tomorrow I'll see what's to be done...

For now...Giles is home...

My real father is home...And I can breathe again...

Papa was much more disappointed in me...But in the end he too was kind about...I remember...

A thought which mercifully passed so quickly I didn't make the connection...Yet...

The joyous, soulful strains of the intermezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana" filled the cavern in the

hills west of Sunnydale where Fryn had set up his base...

Appropriate music for the climax of the glorious forthcoming ceremony...

The little fellow sat in a comfortable chair set against one wall, a large and ancient manuscript on

the reading table beside him...

His principal female follower, the one who'd accompanied him to the meeting with the "Crime

Lords of Sunnydale", Judith by name...Waited patiently for the music to end...

He smiled pleasantly at her...Holding up a hand...Just a minute, his look said, kindly...

Milord set an excellent example she thought...No overbearing egotism as with the Master and

other defeated would-be world conquerors...

And never one to underestimate his opponents...

Yes...Her dear sire would be the one to defeat the Slayer...For once and for all...

Well...At least until the next one was called...

He waved his finger in time to the last strain of music...Perfect for the climax...

"Excellent choice, Anthony..." he told a tall vampire standing by who beamed happily...

Such a pleasure to serve a ruler who appreciates the finer things...

"The gods themselves will bless this occasion..." Fryn noted...The beginning of a new era in

history...The rule of the Immortals...

In association with like-minded humans, he carefully added...A man true to the spirit as well as

letter of his alliances...

After all, he pointed out to the general group clustered respectfully about him, nodding at the

stereo system just tested...Humans do have their uses in addition to being a good source of

nutrition...

A leader of tolerance...As well as vision...One follower noted to his comrade...

Have the speakers and system installed at the altar...Fryn ordered, smiling...

"Yes, Judith?..." he looked at her...

"Sir...We've located the pieces needed to complete the altar..." she paused...

"Well done, well done..." he rubbed his hands...But saw her expression...

But...He eyed her...

They are in a place guarded by the Slayer...she explained cautiously...And William the Bloody...

"The Magic Box" by name...she noted...

"Guarded?..." he looked at her... "Are they aware of our preparations?..."

"Not that we know of, Milord..." Judith replied...

It seems the shop is owned by friends of the Slayer...She works there, it seems...According to our

daylight-capable demons...

Moreover, the traitor William...Now appears to live there...she looked at Violadus...

Hmmn...

"Lives there?..." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully...

And have you worked out a solution to suggest?...he eyed her...

Always one to encourage initiative among the staff...

"We thought...An attack, after the Slayer goes on Patrol..." she explained...

An assault plan has been prepared...she signaled two others to bring a large map of the Magic

Shop's layout on a easel...

Potentially costly in number against the famed William of course...And the Slayer or any of her

friends who might be able to assist him...But no sacrifice is too great...she noted...

You see, the problem is...she paused...Our vampire members would require access to be granted

to the place...Forcing us to rely on the small numbers of our demon compatriots to gain entry...

However...she beamed...We have prepared an elaborate stratagem...I will go to the place in

human guise, requesting assisting from outside as a human female victimized by our brethren...

"I've been practicing my scream..." she noted...Giving an example of a terrified human damsel in

distress...Loudly...

Very nice...Fryn paused...Truly appetitizing...But...

"When William the Bloody emerges, before he detects my nature...We seize him..." she

continued...

Hopefully...After sufficient torture he will allow us access...

Fryn frowned slightly...

Or...she went on hastily...Alternatively we could seize any of the Slayer's followers who may be

around...Perhaps I could even contact the Slayer's home to warn that the place is under

attack...Lure one or more of them into our hands while the Slayer is elsewhere...

And it would allow us to dispense with the services of those three humans...she smiled...

Hmmn...I prefer to maintain our alliance with Mr. Mears and his friends for the moment...Fryn

noted, regarding the map...

Our new human allies have weapons and abilities that can even disable Ms. Summers...

Best to leave her and William the Bloody to them...Especially as they promised to take him by

tomorrow evening...And deliver her shortly afterwards...

After all...We want them unscratched for the sacrifice...he finished...

"Then shall I order an all-out assault for tonight?..." Judith looked at him... "Hoping that a few of

our non-vampire demons can survive to reach the shop interior and obtain the items while the

rest of us create a diversion?..."

We stand ready to give our existences for the success of the ceremony...she noted...

No wonder our ranks have been decimated by the Slayer...Fryn thought...

Judith is a loyal girl but much too inclined to World War I tactics...

Hmmn...Magic Box...magic shop?...

"But...Isn't this a shop, this place?..." Fryn looked at her...

"Why not simply have one of our daylight-capable people purchase the items...?" he suggested...

Or better yet, hire a human to handle the transaction...Avoiding any risk of detection...

And...It's tax deductible...he happily noted...

She and the others looked at each other...

This is what makes Lord Violadus a truly great leader...she noted to one of the assistants as they

removed the battle map...

That instant ability to cut through to the heart of a problem and find its solution...she beamed,

looking back at Fryn as he continued to review his manuscript...

So...Tara paused, eyeing Willow...

"That's what I know...From both of them..."

But this all came out in the last couple of days...she hastily added...

"Didn't mean to leave you out sweetie...They each wanted things kept private...At least until they

started telling everybody..."

So...Cicely was pregnant when William was killed...But drove him away in any case...? And

now Buffy is pregnant...And is thinking of driving him away again?...Willow looked at her...

"Sounds like history repeating itself...Though of course Will wasn't vamped when Cicely chased

him off..." Willow pondered...

"And Halfreck "helped" her?..." Willow looked at Tara...

And is back...To "help" her now...?

With ulterior motives, I think...Tara replied...

But why did Cicely condemn him?...Did he do something...Awful?...Willow asked...

"No..." Tara replied... Firmly...

Willow looked up at her...

Well...she hesitated...I don't think so...

I think Cicely was afraid for him...Pushing him away for his own good...We know she was the

Slayer even then...Tara noted...Maybe she didn't know what the consequences of consulting with

Halfreck might be...

"But we need more info..." she went on...We'll have to see what we can find out today...

And there's...Buffy's condition to consider...

Yeah...Willow sighed...

"What a favor I did her...Pulling her back for this..." she looked down...

Actually...Tara smiled...

Odd as it sounds...

"I don't think she's as depressed about all this as you might think from her talk..."

She's in love with him...Still...

Yeah...Willow sighed...

Even I caught that back at the house last night...She kept talking about him...she paused...

"But she is terrified..." Willow eyed Tara...

And why not...Carrying William's the Bloody's offspring...

"We don't know if there'll be any more problems than for Connor..." Tara noted...

"It might be fine..." Pleading a little...

Might...Willow stressed...

That's not enough for Buffy now...

"It's not right to expect her to bear something like this, Tara..."

I know...Tara nodded...I know...But...

"I'm sorry for Spike too..." Willow looked at the wall...

But Buffy has to be our main concern...

"You are right though Tara...She does love him...Which really only makes it that much worse..."

Poor Buf...Poor Will...she shook her head...Hmmn...Will...

"Any luck with the resurrection spell...?"

Tara shook her head...

"Wolfram-Hart keeps their secrets close...There's nothing I've been able to dig out besides what

Wesley reported...And your Buffy spell won't work for William...Not killed by mystic

energy...And not "the warrior of the people"..." she noted...

Nothing I could find via computer, either...Willow sighed again...

"What are they gonna do, Tara?...If we can't help them...?"

I don't know...But I don't think Will could bear losing her again...Tara looked at her...

He's been through so much...His soul has hung on somehow, so long...But there's got to be a

point of no return...she noted...

Even for a beautiful, courageous soul like his...she did not say...

"Buffy can't bear spending her life trying to help him and hope..." Willow replied...

We can't abandon him...Tara looked at her...Not now...When William is so close...

"Sweetie...Much as you may feel for him...And we all do...William the Bloody is a maniac..."

"Who tried to kill me once, remember?..." she eyed Tara...

Spike tried to kill you...Not William...Tara replied firmly...

And I'm not saying Buffy should be his lover...

"Just...He was there for her...Now he needs her to be there for him...At least let him know she

cares..."

"She does care, we both know that...And he has to have something to hope for, Willow..." Tara

stared at her...

Hmmn...

My sweetie is very sympathetic to poor ole Will...she thought...Which is nice...

Up to a point...

"We don't know how much of William is left...And however much the chip may have helped...

We can't trust him..." Willow regarded Tara carefully...

And Buffy can't be expected to take on his salvation...Not now...

Tara looked away...Thinking...

"Well...Giles should be in any time now...Maybe he'll have something..." she noted...

Thank God he's back...Willow nodded...Buffy's never needed him more...Even if he can't help

with the magics...

"But you're right, honey...We all need someone...To care..." Willow looked at her...Steadily...

I'm...Not ready, Willow...Tara eyed her...

Sorry...Willow looked away...

I just...

"We'll see how things go, ok?..." Tara smiled faintly at her...

Yeah...Willow nodded...I understand...

It couldn't be...It can't be...she thought...She's just concerned about him...

"For now...We gotta ton of work to do...If you're up to a little net searching while I finish getting

my stuff together..." Tara grinned...

Right...Willow smiled...

"Tara..." she looked at her...

"It is nice...The effort you're making for him...I don't mean to throw cold water on it...I just..."

It's fine...Tara smiled...

"I want what's best for Buffy too, Willow..."

Just want to make sure someone speaks up for Will, that's all...

Sunrise...Part XV...

Tara explained what she knew of Halfreck's motives...

That's why?...She wanted Spike out of Hell...?...Willow looked at her...

To date him...?...she blinked...

Plus scoring points with ole D'Hoffryn if she gets Buffy to join the firm...

And she's been on this "job" for over a century?...

"About the size of it..." Tara agreed...

I guess to an immortal demon Time's a relative thing...

But I think she wants the William in Spike as well if she can turn him from Buffy...er Cicely-Buffy...Frustrate the love out of him, so to speak...

"But as to why Cicely had her curse Will so horribly...? Buffy told me Cicely loved him...And she kept his baby...It doesn't make sense..." she shook her head...

Abortion wasn't an easy out in those days, even for a wealthy girl...Willow pointed out...

She loved him, Willow...Tara eyed her...If you'd heard Buffy speak about what she's picked

up of Cicely's memories...You wouldn't doubt it...

And as for Buffy...

Ok...Willow waved a hand...Enough with the irresistible charms of William the Bloody...

"Lets leave this for now...They'll have to deal in their own time...Giving Buffy more info on Cicely and..." She gulped... "'Junior?' ...Is the best thing we can do for now..."

"Like you said we've got a ton of work to do if we're gonna do this today...So..."

Right...Tara grinned...Settling in...

So lets avoid any more questions that I don't want answers to...Willow thought, looking at her beloved...Happily tearing into some books...

It's not true...She couldn't...But then even I...Thought about him once or twice...Or thrice...

Maybe it's just her good heart...Her good ole sympathy kicking' in...Yeah...

God don't let me think about this...Don't let me...

Warren rattled a stuck key on his master keyboard console...A bleary-eyed Jonathan lifted his head...

"Rise and shine, sleepy-head..." Warren sneered...

Not exactly the best kept watch, Jonathan...he noted...

"Sorry...I was up all night you know...And there wasn't much to watch once Buffy headed out with that Anya girl..."

Pity we never got cameras into the Summers'...Warren noted...

Neat to see the Slayer and her sis au naturel...

"Pervert...The kid is what?...14?" Jonathan glared...

Hey...Better our love slave-in-training than dead...Warren smirked...

Like her sis...

Hey...Andrew called from the door...Invisible...

"Andrew..." Warren sighed...Looking at the envelopes and tape floating in mid-air...Obviously in his hand or pocket...

"Did I not tell you not to carry the stuff in a way that would attract attention?..."

It's in my pants pocket...Andrew replied, miffed...

"We can see that, Andrew...And it makes for a wonderful party trick...Unless Buffy or one of her little elves catches sight of your magic mail..." Warren groused...

And today is...D-Day, you know...

"Isn't it Friday?..." Andrew was puzzled...

Warren rolled his eyes...And to think...I've got to toast Johnny-boy here after we settle with Buffy and keep this one...

Geesch...he had to develop the beginnings of an adult conscience...Oh, well...With Andy that's sure never to be a problem...

Visibilize him...he looked at Jonathan who brought up the ray and fired...

"Anyway..." Andrew grinned... "Good news..."

We got a customer...He waved the tape he'd swiped from the telemarketers...

"A couple, actually..."

Two?...Warren looked at the tape...

Hope they don't want rush jobs...Tonight and tomorrow are likely to be busy...

Nah...Andrew giggled...A couple...Some guy and his girl...

Kinky...Warren nodded...

Pity Kat wasn't so broad-minded...Must be quite a girl...

It's...A ceremony of renewal...A returning of strength to the Hellmouth, Giles noted...

He was taking advantage of the little time he had before we dashed to the Shop for my session with Tara to discuss Chairman Travers' "great new menace"...Violadus Fryn and his upcoming ritual...

Not all that unusual...Yet another grab the Slayer and destroy the world...Or gain great new power...scheme...In this case gaining new power as well as killing the Slayer was the goal...

"Between Saturday and Sunday of the second weekend in the month of May...The month when powers of renewal are at their height..." Giles began...

Following a calculated 300 year cycle...The vampires following "Saint" Vitulus kill and transform the Slayer...And sacrifice her to their gods...

"Kinda of a lot of trouble to go to just kill a Slayer..." I stared at him...Wouldn't it be more practical to keep her around to help with the killings...Advice from the horse's mouth on how to deal with the new Slayer and co...

Well...Giles sighed...Vampires are not very practical people...

"What happens...If they fail to capture the Slayer..." I asked...

"One of their own voluntarily sacrifices themselves...At least in theory it's voluntary..." Giles noted...

In return...A small but significant jolt of energy is returned through the Hellmouth... Strengthening the followers to do the "saint's" work on Earth...he concluded...

"How strong?...If they pull it off?..."

According to Council records...The last successful ceremony gave the followers several times their normal battle strength...It took the efforts of the entire Council at that time, plus three successive Slayers to defeat them...

"But they lost...As always..." I grinned...

Three Slayers, my dear...One after the other...

"Well...That was then...This is now..." I noted...

"And I have Wil...er..low...Willow...of course...On my side..." I grinned sheepishly...

Yeah...Good ole non-magics Willow...And of course Tara...with magics...And...Xander, Anya...

And...All...

Don't be overconfident, Buffy...Giles frowned...

Death was the result of your last major battle, you know...

And...he paused...You are not in fighting condition just now...

"Thanks for reminding me, Giles..." I glared...

I got to the Shop at three...An hour before my half-shift...

One look at Tara said things were not well regarding redemption/resurrection spells...

And as for...My bundle...

Anya had kindly kept Spike assigned to assist Giles who was recataloging old and new works...

Giles likewise kindly keeping Blondie busy...

"I can't say how the baby will turn out Buffy..." Tara sighed, trying to keep it down...Willow eyed me...

"Nothing on my end either..." Willow added...

"Just Angel and Darla's little experiment...That's the only thing recorded..."

"Great..." I smiled brittlely... "I get to be number two..."

And the first pure human...

"Wasn't there...Ever?..."

Not many humans lived through sexual encounters with vamps in the past, Buf...Willow explained...

Hmmn...Would've thought something like that would've been right up ole Angelis' alley though...she thought...

Getting some earlier version of poor Dru pregnant...But if he did...No record exists...

"I'm sorry Buffy..."she told me...Tara watching us...

I shook my head...Ok...

Nothing to go on but Darla's little miracle baby...

"We can check the kid out by magics...but it won't reveal the baby's future development...And it will take a few days..."

That won't be necessary...I eyed her...

Tara stared at me...Realizing...

"Buffy..." she paused...

At least...Talk it over with him...she hesitated...

"That would be pointless, Tara...I'd just be hurting him for nothing..." I replied...

What about...Cicely?...she looked at me...

Let me try on that first...she pleaded...

"Later..." I told her... "I do want to try to get more info but...that other thing is settled..."

Buffy...Willow looked at me...I understand...

And we'll support you...In whatever you decide...

"But...Maybe...Tara's right..."

"I don't owe him anything Tara..." I looked over at her...

Nothing, Will...I looked at Willow...Who nodded...

But I knew...For once...She didn't instinctively take my part here...

William came down from the rare books room...

"Anything interesting on our new menace...?" he paused...

Rupert gave me the low-down upstairs...Interesting group...

Make for a nice evening's sport...he grinned...

"I can handle Mr. Fryn and co...Thanks..." I told him...Coolly...

But I was desperately anxious to speak to him...Fighting another impulse to tell him...And...

Still determined to know what was up with the "I came to his crypt and said it was over" business...

I came?...

Not that I meant to restart or even suggest a restart but...It might be useful to know about it...

But he had business of his own...With Tara...

Grousing involuntarily under his request for ten...Under Willow's watchful eye...I backed off reluctantly and went up to Giles...

Tara sighed...No better news at that end either...

"I'm so sorry Will...But there's nothing new on Wolfram and Hart's ceremony..."

He nodded...That's ok...In fact...He might himself have some new info...By tonight...Or at least the weekend...

If a certain party delivered the goods...

Spike?...Tara eyed him...Nothing...And no one...Dangerous...?

"No one to get worked up about..." he grinned...

Just a leetle info exchange...

I told Giles what Tara had told me...Which he'd expected...

The Council would have made any such event a matter of record...Gleaned everything they could from observation and study...

Meaning of course that in certain centuries, they've of stolen the kid and raised it as a kind of Slayer in training...

Or dissected it...

I went down to find my dream beau waiting...

Anxious at last to finally review events...Pass on a few choice memories of Cicely if he could slip them in...And make some requests...

Regarding my position as assistant clerk, half-time...

You run a tight ship, Mr. Walthrop...I grinned at him...

Unfortunately I also chose to part with my lunch at that time...

And Spike is a remarkably perceptive fellow...Who'd had no reason to try sensing an extra human in me...Until now...As he stared at his shoes...And me...

"Buffy..." he gasped...Nervously walking me to a seat...

Willow eyed me...I shrugged her away...

Leave this to me...My look said...

"I'm sorry you found out, Will..." I looked at him...

"It's your decision, Buffy..." he told me...Not looking at me...

God knows it would be tough enough if I were a human...And a success to boot...

"But as long as Spikey gets his little electronic anti-psychotic meds..." He spoke in a desperate, pleading voice, pausing...

I can be William for you...

And if I can keep Spike down...And...Maybe more...

I can help you...With...

"No..." I told him...

"Won't you even try?...To believe in me..."

For us...For our baby...

"There is no 'us' Spike..."

And this...Baby...Or whatever it is...Is my problem..Alone...

He sighed and looked away...

And then...Looked at me...Gently...

Help me...he pleaded...Show me a little pity, Buffy...

For the sake of the man I was, once...

The man you loved, Cicely...

He looked steadily at me...Taking my hand...Continuing in an intense whisper...

"I know you care...Help me...Give me some reason to try..."

Voices raging in my head...

Only cruel to let him hope...When there was no hope...

I'll find a way...But...I can't do this alone...he looked at me...

"I'm asking you...Begging you...To help me...And spare our baby..."

I stared at him...No...No...God, don't do this to me...

He took my hand...

"Save me Cicely...Oh...Please...While there's still something left..."

Before the last bit of me is lost in Spike...

No...Oh, God...I looked away, trembling...

The others watched...I waved Willow back...

He smiled wanly...

"Be a sport, girl...Lie to me...Tell me there's something to hope for..."

At least until I can try...

Please...Then...Well...

"If things flop, I won't hold you to it...I swear..."

I wanted to lie...I wanted to promise him redemption, love, anything...

But...I was on the cliff...The abyss opening in front of me...

Or, more appropriately...The dimensional rupture...

And I couldn't leap again...Not even for him...

"There is nothing to hope for William..."

Only cruel to let him hope the voice in my head said...When there was no hope...

God cursed him, let God save him...

Forgive me...God forgive me...

"There is nothing to hope for William..." I repeated...

He stared at me a long, silent time...

Right then...

"Well...Ms. Summers...Would you bring out these boxes and unpack them on the central table?..."

"Spike..." I paused... "It might be best...If..."

"If you want to terminate your employ, Ms. Summers...That's your business...Speak to Anya about it..." he stared at me...

"As for me...I don't intend to leave, if you were hinting at that...And I promise you...You won't be pestered by me again..."

"Fine..." I looked back at him...

Will...Oh, Will...How could I help you?...What good could come from it?...I should have said...

But I knew him...And if I gave him even that much...He'd hope...

And what hope could we have?...

I wanted to cry out to him...Promise I'd hope...Or try to...

That I'd leave our baby's fate to God...

But the sensible voices called out...I was the Slayer...There was no hope for him...And whatever was in me...Was more than likely Spike's...Not William's...

What do I owe you...Even if...If...I loved you then...And loved you now...

What did he owe me...One small voice cried out...When he tried to save me, saved Dawn and my friends...And...Saved me, gave me a reason to go on...I pushed it down...

"But I want you to keep away from my friends outside work...Tara included..." I told him...

"So long as she wants to remain my friend...I will see Ms. Maclauy anytime she cares to..."

But I won't bother your sis, don't worry...

I fumed, grateful for anything to relieve the screaming in my head...

The voices that screamed "How can you do to him?..." as well as all the sensible ones

"If you hurt her..."

"Ms. Summers?...Are you working here this afternoon?...Or planning to take the whole time off for your ranting?..." he eyed me...

Unless...he paused...

"If you need to rest Buffy..." he began...

I grabbed the boxes and went into the main store...Fortunately I wasn't feeling all that hot anyway...Struggling with a headache and some nausea at least gave me something else to think about...

Anya eyed me...Hearing most of it had been rather unavoidable...Fortunately she'd hung the "Closed" shingle on the front door when we started in...Guess it was easy to tell it would be a major blowout...

I waved her off...Not now, thanks...

I unpacked the boxes and stacked the stuff...Fertility charms, a sure crowd-pleaser...Without a word...

Ironic jokesters those Powers That Be...

Sunrise...Part XVI...

Anya decided to call it quits early...Given the closed shop and our jangled nerves...

After we finished closing up, I hung with Giles, vaguely discussing Mr. Fryn and co...Wanting

another chance to speak to Spike and afraid to...

And I had a doctor to hunt up as well...One I definitely did not want Dawny to hear me on the

phone with...Who would be willing to help me this evening with no questions asked...Though I

had a candidate in mind...

Someone I knew through my baby's father, actually...

Bizarrely appropriate...

William came up from his basement digs about six-thirty, spoke to Anya quietly, without a word

to me...She nodded to him after a brief glance my way and he headed out...

Never looking at me...

Tara hurrying after him...Willow watching with a look on her face that told me she knew...

"Tara's concerned about him..." she wanly smiled at Giles and me...

Even Anya knew better than to say anything...Watching us from the cash register...

But she ran to Xander when he came in...Hugging him, never to let go...In uncertain times like

these the natural thing to do...I tried to focus on Giles...But even he had really run out of things to

say...Staring at me sympathetically...

But Xander had news...Thank God...

"The nerds took our bait..." he told us...

I blinked at him...

We placed an order for one of Warren's sexbots, Anya explained...

Hmmn...I eyed Willow...

Bet it'd be interesting to see their specifications...

"When's delivery?...Or pick-up?..." I asked Xander...

Well...They claimed...The robot would be delivered tonight...

Wow...Willow smiled at me...

Fast service by nerd express...

"We made it easy for them..." Anya explained...

Asked for a short, attractive blonde...Like the one they had on channel 340 with Jonathan...

"You asked for me...er...for the Buffy-bot...?" I blinked...

Just to speed things...Xander nervously explained...

Uh-huh...I eyed him...

"When do they deliver?...Or better yet, we pick up?..." Willow asked...

By ten pm...So they claimed...At our place...

"So..." I looked at them and Willow...

That gives me enough time for a quick stop-off...

"Buffy?.." Willow looked at me...

Tonight?...Wait a minute...

"Even you can't just rush out, have...that...And go fight Warren and his crew..."

"I doubt it will come to fighting tonight, Will...And I don't want to wait...I can't..."

"Buffy..." Willow paused...

"What if it's human?..."

"I couldn't deal with it now anyway, Willow..."

And William couldn't bear it...It would be torture for him...I did not say...

It was for the best in any case...

"Is this my decision or no...?" I looked at her and the others...

"I think you'll be sorry Buffy..." Anya said quietly...Not looking at me...

I couldn't be more sorry...Or sad...I did not say...

However...Dawny chose that moment to arrive and all conservation along those lines ceased...

We returned to the subject of Xander and Anya's newest acquisition...A hefty little sum for my

copy...Willow noted...

Thank God I didn't give them my Visa card...Xander replied...

I slipped off to the upstairs room for a call...Willow watching me...With a glance or two towards

the door where Tara had left in pursuit of William...

The others discussed how to handle the "purchase"...

Dawn stared at me as I climbed up...And grinned on seeing my relatively mild frown ...Taking a

seat next to Willow...Heck she knew without asking she'd never get to see what transpired at the

Harrises when BB showed...

"Will!..." Tara called to him...

Wait...Please...

He stopped...And looked back...

She caught up to him...

"Well...?" he smiled faintly...

Don't tie up your panties, girl...I'm not the suicidal type...he grinned...

She looked at him a long time...Straight in the eyes...

"Yes...You are..." she told him...

"I'm trying to get the info I told you about..." he explained tersely...

Don't worry yourself...

"After all...You told me...She was just afraid..." he eyed her...

And maybe...If I can pull this off...

"And if you can't...?" she stared at him...

I'll cross that one when I come to it...he said quietly...

"Let me come with you..." Tara asked...

"Thanks...But my "friends" might sense a rat...And scurry like several..."

"They won't see anything but your latest..." she grinned..."Please Will..." she pleaded...

"Why..." he began...

"Because I care...Someone has to..." Tara replied...Taking his hand...

"No..." he smiled...A boy's gentle smile...Cicely's beloved smile...

"Why am I so lucky to have you and Buffy...Caring for me...?"

She grinned back...And eyed him...

"You know...It's not polite to bring up Buffy at a time like this..."

Your Victorian chivalry is a little off these days...

So...? Tara eyes him as they stop outside Willie's...

First contact...he grins...

Old friends...he whispers, holding the door for her...

Uh...boy...Tara sighs...Seeing Warren and Jonathan...

Spike...she hisses...

"Well..." Warren grins...

The two lovebirds...

Wait a sec...He eyed Tara...

"You're not Summers..."

Jonathan looks to the freeze ray...

Uh-oh...Willie sighs from his corner, ducking under the bar...

"What's going on here?..." Mears glares...

Who's she...? And where's the Slayer?...Hiding out front?...

"Enough, old pal..." Spike eyes him...

My friend is just that...And my magics expert...

Summers is with her pals or back with the Nibs...

The deal is still on...If you can deliver...

"That's Willow's friend..." Jonathan notes...

I've seen them together...

I'll bet he has...Tara thought...

"Where's your other playmate...?" Spike asks, looking for Andrew...

"He's occupied...You're not our only business transaction, you know..." Warren replies...

"Just want all cards on the table, old pal..." Spike smiles...

Trust being the basis of any lasting relationship...

"Have you got the cash?..." Warren asks...

"That's my 'friend's' department, old pal...I told you he'll meet us at the Magic Box

tonight...With a certified check for both of us...If your stuff satisfies..."

Tara frowns at him...Spike...You're not helping these...Her expression clearly read...

He raises a finger...Trust me...

Ummn...she grouses...

"Trouble in Paradise?..." Warren leers...

Or is Mommie making you back out...?

"Warren... æMommie' here can turn you lot into toads in a second if you shoot off your mouth

again...So watch yourselves..." Spike smiles...

Tara glares and nods...Eyeing Jonathan, then Warren...

Hmmn...Wasn't counting on magics help here...Warren thinks...

This may take a bit more doing than I thought...

Still...We almost have Spike...And if we have him...We have Buffy...He eyes Tara...

Whoever this Tara is, she's not the one for him...Though a rather hot babe in that leather jacket...

But Buffy is our Spike's own true...I've no doubt...After six months of watching them at every

opportunity...

I guess I just have a natural feeling for these love things...he notes to himself...

"Well we've thought it over in any case..." Warren begins...Eyeing Jonathan and his freeze ray...

And we prefer to do our business here...Not at your friend's shop...

"Especially not if you have a magics æexpert' on hand..." he notes...

"My buyer is heading there..." Spike points out...

He may not care for a chance of scenery...

"Send your girl scout here...Let her persuade him..." Warren suggests...Eyeing a still-glaring

Tara...

"Not our original arrangement, Mearsy..." Spike notes...

"Well...I had a sudden burst of caution...It just came over me..." Warren sneers...

The moment you brought in Little Wendy the Witch here...

"But...As a pledge of good faith..." he tosses Spike a disk...

"There's part of the schematics of the time warper...Enough to impress anybody who knows

anything...If that doesn't bring your buyer here...He's nobody we want to deal with..."

"All right..." Spike nods, turning to Tara...

Spike...she hisses...Are you out of your dead mind?...

"Gentlemen?...Might I have a mo...Outside with milady?..."

Warren nods...And Spike and Tara move out the door...

Willie remains crouched in his favorite position under the bar...One which has carried him safely

through many a disaster...

"You're gonna send her back...?" Jonathan eyes him...

"Someone has to let Buffy know her blondie's in danger..." Warren notes...

May as well be her...

"Aren't we going for the cash first?..." Jonathan asks...

Naturalement...Warren replies...But Tara there will know where and what happened to

Spike...And when we make our move later...She'll provide Buffy with any needed details on our

nefarious doings...

"Thank God I screened this place from magics first thing..." Jonathan sighs...

I don't like being an animal...Especially when I can't reverse the spell...

"But..." he pauses... "Are you sure Buffy will come?..."

If we hold Blondie...She will come...Warren grins...

Ain't love grand...? he sneers...

Sunrise...Part XVII...

I asked Willow to drive me...

A quick prelim sweep of the area between Xander's place and Warren's old

lair...A few hours before the bot delivery...I explained to Dawny...And the

others...

Just in case Warren and co chose to check their customers out beforehand...If

we could catch at least one of them early and unprepared, so much the better...

Though excepting her...All of them realized where we were going...

We headed for the office of Spike's favorite neurologist...The former

Initiative doc who failed him on his first attempt to extract the chip...

A little walk down memory lane on the phone, laced with a few minor threats had

been enough to persuade him to call a close friend who owed him and had similar

uncomfortable Initiative connections in his past...To help the daughter of an

old family friend...Who'd foolishly gotten in a leetle trouble and didn't want

to go the normal day surgery route...

Our medical "fixer" nervously greeted us at his office door...His friend had

agreed to help out, was ready in the exam room...

Of course...He eyed me...This was not normal practice...

"Neither was experimenting on humans and demons, doc..." I sweetly smiled at

him...

By the way...My friend William sends greetings...He's still a bit miffed about

your flopping with his chip though...

"You know, though, I wasn't kidding on the phone...He actually has managed to

crash through it on a couple of occasions recently...When he absolutely had to

to deal with a couple of people who'd really let him down...Right, Willow?..."

I turned to her...

Oh, I don't think Spike would...she hesitated...I glared...

Ummn right...William gets though the chip all the time now...she smiled at the

doc...

When circumstances call for it...she noted...Eyeing him...

He gulped...

"Please come this way..."

A middle-aged...God, I hope so...doctor came over to me in a rear exam

room...Kindly enough

expression on his face considering he'd been politely blackmailed into this by

his old buddy...

I was on a gurney...Lying flat...Waiting...Willow firmly planted besides...

"Well...Miss..." he stared at me... "This won't take long..."

"Ok..." Willow smiled at him...Taking my hand... "Buffy, see...It's gonna be

fine..." She sat by my head...

Fine, yeah...This was the right thing to do...Regardless of William...And his

pleas...

A risk I couldn't handle...I shouldn't have to deal with...Not in this of all

years...

But something was crying out inside me...I didn't know any more...

And memories were surging up...As if...

As if Cicely were crying out to me...To stop me...

"I...Will, do you think?...Am I doing the right thing?..." I grabbed her

hand...Squeezing...

"Buffy...You have to do what's right for you...Nobody else..." Willow patted my

hand back...

And requested a slight lessening of pressure on hers...

Sorry...I let up...

"Ok..." the doc said quietly...

All set, Miss?...he asked...

I stared at him...Nodded...But...

He gave me an injection...Just a mild sedative...And then...

"They're doing this..." I looked wildly at Willow...

Buffy?...

They want him dead...They've tricked me...Sent that thing...

"William!..." I screamed...

"Don't let him go!..." I grabbed Willow...

The doctor?...Looked at us...

"It isn't me...William!..." I screamed...

Come back...Oh...God...William, don't go...It's a lie!...It's not me...

"They've tricked me!..." I cried...

"They want him dead..." I pleaded to the red-haired...Matron?...Whom I no

longer knew...

"Buffy?...Calm down!..." Willow tried to hold me...

I tried to get up...I had to...Get to him...Bring him back...

The Angelis pride is in London...Tonight they'll be out...

And that why...They want him out there...The cowards wouldn't want his blood on

their hands...

"William!..." I screamed, struggling... "They've tricked us...It's a

lie!...Come back!..."

Oh God, Will...come back...Come back!...

No...No...It's too late...I fell back...

I saw a hospital room...Cousin Henry by my side...And on the slab...

I tried to look closely...To see...If...

I had to know...How he died...

I couldn't look at his sweet face...There...Oh, God...

I fainted...I hadn't known I was pregnant...

By the time I was able to get up and about...Slip away from the family...Break

into the morgue at the hospital...

He'd risen...And fled...And I was too late...

I woke up...Willow desperately patting my hand...

"Willow?...I...I...Want to talk to William...I..."

"Buffy...?" Willow looked at me...

She turned to the doctor who'd called his buddy in...This case was taking a

strange turn and he

wasn't interested in getting involved with some psych case under these

conditions...

Another vision popped in my head...I saw the hospital...the room...surgeons and

nurses running around...Blood all over the bed...

My blood...And my little girl...Dead beside me...

Screaming...For my dead William...My mother...Papa...I felt myself slipping

away...

My death...Cicely's death...In 1880...

And the strongest emotion...Anger...

Not fear...And not anger at William, no...Anger at God...And Fate...

But above all...

The ones who'd tricked us...Destroyed us...

Led me to condemn my...Husband...Without realizing it...

And I wouldn't allow it...NO!...They could do whatever they might but I'd find

a way...Find my poor Will...Somehow...I'd...Save him...

And then I died...

"No!...NO!..." I screamed...And pushed the tray table of instruments

back...Willow and the doc struggling to hold me down...

Giles emerged from the upstairs room...Came slowly down the stairs...

And slammed several large books on the main table...Plus a zip disk...

Xander, Anya, Dawn jumped as one...

Anya staring at the books...Fifty percent hers after all...

Well, actually...Giles had specified the retention of the bulk of the rare

books collection in his name...

"Giles...?" Xander eyed him...

"Bastards!..." he said in a coldly furious voice...Pulling over a laptop...

Anya eyed Dawn cautiously...

"My apologies, Dawn..." he calmed and nodded at her...

She was, of course, rather delighted to get a taste of the ole Ripper...

He sighed, looking at Xander...While firing up the computer and placing the

disk inside...

"I was puzzled...Not being able to find any detailed record of Cicely Addams as

Slayer...I assumed she must have had a very short career...Probably cut short

by..." he paused...

Her early death...Eyeing Dawn...

"She didn't...Was Halfreck lying about her?..." Anya asked...

No...Giles paused...

"She was the greatest Slayer the Council had ever had up to that time...And the

longest-lived..."

Like Slayer...Like reincarnated Slayer...Xander thought...

"Why couldn't you find her records?..." Dawn asked, looking at the Watcher...

"They were deliberately expunged..." Giles replied...

Only a few secret accounts of her work remain...Kept in case they were

needed...

"I had to call in every favor I had outstanding to get access to these..."

Here...he paused, indicating the computer screen...

Secret journals of the Council...Including her Watcher's reports...

"All of them...Even her Watcher, Simon Farris...Betrayed her..." he muttered...

But...Xander and the others stared at him...

"The Council did not want her to give up her work..." Giles explained "But she

fell in love...And secretly married...Planned to retire...Which they

found...Unacceptable..."

So...With the help of a very willing leader of vengeance demons...Who

desperately wanted to ensnare a Slayer's soul in his group...

"The Council helped Halfreck and D'Hoffryn?...To get Cicely to curse

William?..." Anya stared at Giles...

Married...? Xander and Dawn looked at Giles...

Cicely and William?...Buffy and Spike?...Are...?

"Wait..." Anya froze...

"They're not done...Are they?...The Council and D'Hoffryn are still working

together?..."

Not exactly, Giles paused...

But clearly their interests still coincide...

Judging by the secret files...Certain psychic members of the Council must have

known about Buffy's concealed nature for years...The files are full of warnings

to keep William the Bloody away from Buffy...Giles paused...By all means

necessary...No wonder Travers and the others stressed the charming and lethal

William the Bloody should be kept from our vulnerable Buffy...

They were waiting for and fearing the day William might appear...And jog her

Cicely memories...From the day she became a Slayer...

"But...Why didn't they kill him?..." Xander asked...

The others looked at him...

Well...Vampire Will and all...One more staked vamp wouldn't have attracted a

lot of notice...he noted...

They tried...Giles smiled wanly...

"He was too strong for them...And, in no small part thanks to Drusilla...Too

elusive..."

Giles paused...

"God forgive me...I accepted the stories on William the Bloody...Never

questioning Travers and the others when they specifically warned me to caution

Buffy about him when he appeared here...Even when he began showing such

humanity last year, I never suspected there was more at work here..." he

sighed...

The Council wants a Slayer amenable to its orders...D'Hoffryn wants

Buffy...Cicely...For one of his at least when she dies if not sooner...

And that means calling her demon out of Hell...In a way that will cause her

soul to submerge itself voluntarily in the demon nature...Not fighting as best

it can...the way William is...

"Surrendering...The way mine did..." Anya looked down...Xander applying

immediate hug therapy...

Until you came to save me...she smiled wanly at Xander...She looked back at

Giles...

Who continued...

"After his death, William was nearly lost, barely hanging on from limbo, until

the chip pushed Spike down...And gave Buffy a chance to recognize him...But it

took her death and the resurrection to fully unearth Cicely's memories..."

He smiled wanly at them...

"Buffy didn't come back to us simply because Willow called her...She had

unfinished business here..."

This is her...Cicely's and Buffy's...Last chance to save William...he eyed

them...

"Wait...Giles?...That ceremony...Fryn?...Violadus Fryn...?" Anya paused...

God, how could I have missed that name?...she thought...

"He's...Or his demon nature at least...Is a descendant of D'Hoffryn..." Giles

nodded... "And working to make Buffy his sacrifice...Raising her demon for his

ancestral demon lord at the same time..."

If Halfreck and D'Hoffryn can break Buffy before the ceremony, her soul will

merge with the demon voluntarily at death...D'Hoffryn will finally get his

first Slayer-vengeance demon...

"How could Halfreck "break"...? Oh...my God...Anya?" Xander began...

"It doesn't have to be hate...Despair is just as good...In fact, it usually

goes hand-in-hand..." Anya nodded...

If she causes William's soul to be lost...For good...And learns the truth...?

she began...

"D'Hoffryn gets his new superdemon...Halfreck gets Spike all to herself..."

Xander filled in...

And his descendant Fryn and his company get their full energy burst...Giles

concluded...

"Buffy won't fall for this...Her soul will never surrender to her demon..."

Xander insisted...

Perhaps not...Giles nodded...But...We can't know what the effect will be...If

she loses William again...Forever...

Are you sure about this, Giles...? Xander asked...

"The chips I called in are from people who can't risk being exposed by me...I

believe them..." he replied...

Travers deliberately concealed this information from me...Giles looked away

from them, tensing...Gave me just enough to let Buffy and William know about

Fryn and his Vitulus sacrifice...

"Hoping that Buffy, spurred on by Halfreck, would make a terrible mistake in

her confusion and despair...And drive William off into Fryn and Halfreck's

arms...Ending any chance that her reincarnated self might unite with him

again..."

Leaving her free to devote her remaining life to Duty...And the Council...

Or, failing that...See that she let herself be taken and sacrificed...In guilt

over William...

With Buffy gone, Travers could persuade the full Council to agree to Faith's

release...On the condition that she would have to fight the strengthened

vamps...She'd die in the course of the fight, little doubt...

And at last they could start again with a Slayer who was properly isolated from

any family or standard human attachments and trained to kill for them and

Humanity without any semblance of a normal life...For the few years of her

working life...

After all, they've defeated the Vitulus followers before...

And there is always another Slayer...he concluded...

He smiled again...Grimly...Just the lips...

"Even Glory's defeat wasn't enough for them...They'll control the Slayer

themselves...Or destroy her..."

I should have known...Stopped Travers in England...And never come back...he

looked at the wall...

"Giles..." Dawn came over to him...

"We wouldn't have known any of this without you...Now...Maybe we can warn

Buffy...At least try to help Will..."

"Xander?..."Anya looked at him...

"Giles..." Xander began, looking at Dawn...

"Buffy didn't go over to check the area around our place...She's..." he

paused...

"I've gotta get over to her...Tell her what we've learned...Before..."

"The baby...? No...No, she wouldn't..." Dawn looked at them desperately...

"Dawny...She didn't know what it would be...She was afraid..." Xander tried to

explain...

We were all afraid...he finished, looking round...

"Go..." Giles said... "I'll take Anya and Dawn to Buffy's...And head over to

your apartment

in case our friends come early with their...Merchandise..."

"What about Will?..." Dawn asked...

Where did he and Tara go?...she turned to Anya...

He spoke to you...

"He...Has some business..." Anya paused... "To help you and Buffy, he said..."

But he's coming back here...In an hour or so...To meet with...A client...

"Maybe I should stay...Let him know what's going on..." Anya looked at the

others...

"And meet up with his "client"?...Whatever or whoever that is?...No way,

honey..."

Xander insisted...

We can leave a note...I'll swing by after I see Buffy...No arguments, An...he

frowned at her...

"You'd better hurry, Xander..." Giles told him...

He nodded, rose, but turned to Dawn...

"Dawn?...Understand...She may still choose to...It's her right to decide

this...She's the one who'd have to live with the consequences...I just want her

to know what's up behind the scenes..."

She nodded wanly and he left...

"Giles...?" Dawn looked at him...

He turned to her...

"Buffy is here...Back...To save William?..."

"Only in part, Dawn..." he told her... "And even she wasn't aware..."

Yes, but...Does that mean...If she saves him...? she paused...

"We'll lose her again...?"

An hour later a tall man in black moved cautiously to the little shop door...Scanning

carefully around the street in front of the building...No one in sight...

He pulled a scanning device from a pocket...Thermal emissions, nearby...Human

from the looks...Not many close by but difficult to ascertain the exact

number...

Hmmn...He'd been expecting at least one vampire...

Tensing, he turned the knob of the door...Unlocked, he realized...

But after all, he was expected...

He cautiously swung the door open...

"Hi, Riley..." Tara chirped...Stepping forward from the dark counter to hit a

light switch...

Riley jumped back, frowned, and sighed...

"Tara...?"

Sorry...she sheepishly grinned at him...

Didn't mean to get you secret agenty jumpy and all...

"I didn't want to be seen if Spike's "friends" were following me back here..."

she explained...

"Well...Hi..." He paused, looking around... "Where's..."

"The "dealers" got all cautious when I came in with him back at

Willie's..." she explained...

Sent me over to tell you they want to meet there instead...

A cell phone call had pulled Warren away...His voice could be heard arguing in

the back of the bar with...Someone...

"No, moron...You download the R5 through R12 files into the main computer...You

delete the starred files..."

Arrgh...

"A little trouble...?" Spike asked Jonathan pleasantly, nodding in Warren's

direction...As the little fellow kept his freeze ray trained...

"Nothing we can't handle..." Jonathan replied...Watching the vampire

narrowly...

"Well, seeing as how well you boys have handled murder..." Spike smiled...

Jonathan blanched...

Willie had relaxed enough to surface above the bar counter...Watching the group

carefully as several new customers sauntered in...A couple of vamps and a

demon, Spike noted...

No trouble, guys...Please?...Business to run...Willie eyed Spike and Jonathan,

Spike nodding back to him...

"Alls well, mate...Just a little pleasant chat with my business partner

here..."

"I didn't kill anyone..." Jonathan hissed back in a tense whisper...

It was an accident, anyway...

"I don't want to talk about it..." he looked back to Warren, still hollering

into his cell phone...

Ah...Well there's always a next time...Spike grinned at him...

Yeah...Jonathan thought...Eyeing him...

There is...

"You really think the Doctor...er Spike...Is on the level here?..." Riley was

asking Tara as they walked towards Willie's...She having insisted on returning

with him...

"Yeah, I do..." she looked at him...

"He loves her...And this is for her..."

But...She grinned and frowned at him...

"I thought you didn't approve of arms sales by demons..."

"I don't..." Riley replied, eyeing her...

Unfortunately...My superiors want a look at what's out there...

"And you're ready to hand over anything to them?..." Tara stopped...Looking at

him steadily...

I thought we trained you better Riley Finn...she looked at him...

He grinned a bit...Shaking his head...

"Not... æanything'...Just what I decide won't be dangerous in our hands...And

might help save some lives in the corps..."

And strictly tech stuff...No magics...

Our people would eventually stumble across most of the scientific stuff

anyway...

"And as long as I deliver...Something...I get to stay informed on these deals

and keep an eye on what's being offered...To and from whom...And if it's too

dangerous to let the deal go through..." he noted, smiling...

"Besides...This case is special...I owe Buffy...And...I guess...I even owe

Spike...After that eggs thing..."

Tara nodded thoughtfully...

"Do you know the source, Tara?...Is the "Doctor"...?" he shook his head... "I

mean...Spike...Getting into something too deep?...Dangerous for Buffy as

well?..."

"I don't think I can tell you who Riley...I promised..." she grinned... "...

the "Doctor"...But I'm not crazy about this thing..." she frowned...

And you know Spike...Naturally he's in way over his deceased head...

"She does really need the cash though...And this might give her the chance she

needs to go back to school..."

"And he's doing this...For her?..." Riley mused...With wonder...

How about you?...he looked at Tara suddenly...

"Is this for Buffy...? Or Willow?..."

She shook her head...

He eyed her...With some surprise...

"For him?..."

She eyed him...Waving her hands with a slightly embarrassed look...

He stared at her...Kindly...For a long moment...And nodded...

"Well...Why don't we see what Uncle Sam can offer our lovestruck "Doctor"..."

he smiled...

They continued along...Tara even quieter than usual...

Only in Sunnydale...Riley thought...Glancing at her as they walked...

Buffy...And Tara...

Lucky...Unman, our "doctor"...

Thank God I have a wife with security clearance I can tell things like this

to...

Sunrise...Part XVIII...

Xander reached Willow by cell phone from his car...And met us at the clinic...

I was still groggy and disoriented...While Willow was silent as we drove over to Xander's...

Leaving my Big Bro to try to raise our spirits...And God bless æim he tried...

Painting a picture for us of the upcoming scene with Buffy-bot and the nerds...

The horrified look on Warren's face when I showed up...And he realized I knew about his little

"commercial"...

Poor Botty "caught" by her "sister" under rather embarrassing circumstances...

Of course, he noted...That was nothing compared to the embarrassment Giles would undergo if

they reached him before we did...

Saluted by them as their "customer"...Maybe Botty would even still know him...Greet him by

name and wonder out loud if he'd been fantasizing about me all this time...

Willow did her best to laugh...I managed a smile...

We did pick up on Giles' info...So...The Watchers' Council...My dear guardians and advisors...

Had sold me out...Twice...To D'Hoffryn...

Almost would be worth it to join the firm...And curse each member of the Council in the know...

Xander was...Naturally...And especially after learning what had happened...Hesitant to tell me all

the details...Regarding William and past matrimony...

But it all jibbed with what I'd remembered lying on that gurney...In the clinic where my second

baby girl had just died...

Mercifully not yet far enough along to be very recognizable ...Except to a doctor like my

attending...Who'd told me the sex at my request...

To neither of my friends' surprise, I was not particularly anxious to hook up with William just

yet...Though to Xander's attempt at carefully concealed surprise, I showed some anger at their

letting him continue his crazy, dangerous "deal" whatever that was and whoever was

involved...And a certain degree of what even to him was unmistakably jealously over Tara's

having gone with him...

I continued to groggily pump Xander for details of Spike's little meeting...Maybe the bot and her

owners could wait...

"Giles is at our place by now, Buffy..." Xander eyed me carefully...

If the nerds show there...He could be in danger if they recognize him...And Jonathan at least

knows him...

Yeah...You're right, Xander...I woozily agreed...

"Why don't you drop me here?...I'll go check on Spike..."

He looked at me, shaking his head...And saw something in my eyes...

"I'll go check...Soon as we get to the place..." he said...

"You promise...?" the words slipped out...Becoming more tense and desperate...

"I can't...Don't...let him be hurt...Please..."

"He'll be fine..." Xander replied quietly...Looking sympathetically at me...

And exchanging a glance with Willow...

But I wasn't ready to face him...Not now...

I still wanted to speak to Halfreck again, though...Under controlled conditions of course...With

Tara in place to provide what magics protection she could...After we dealt with the bot

transaction and any of the Troika who decided to show with her...

Before I could try to face my...Husband...And decide what, if anything, to tell him...I had to settle

with my "guardian angel"...

"Gentlemen..." Riley eyes the Trio coldly...

"So..." Warren smirks at Tara...

"What'd Buffy say when you told her about us being here?..."

"If I had told Buffy where you three were..." Tara pauses... "You'd be on your way to jail right

now...And unconscious to boot..."

Which you'd better be shortly or I'll call them myself...she thinks, eyeing Spike...

"Hey..." Warren sneers, waving his hands... "We're not afraid of the Slayer..."

Jonathan rolling his eyes slightly...But attempting to maintain his cool, collected composure to

daunt their foes...

"No..." Tara nods... "You're much too stupid to be afraid of her..."

Warren glares...

"Jonathan...?" Tara turns to him...He tightens his grip on the freeze ray...Uncertain what Spike's

"magics expert" has in store for him...

"Buffy's very disappointed in you, you know...And hurt...You've really let her down..."

She still has that "Class Protector" umbrella you gave her...

He eyes her...

Ummn...

"Ok...Enough with the psychout attempts..." Warren glares...

"Are we here to do business or no?..."

"To business..." Spike raises his beer...Grinning...

"What have you got for me?..." Riley looks at Warren...

Well...he grins expansively...

"All depends on what Uncle Sammy is ready to offer...But for starters...How about an invisibility

ray?...The ultimate in camouflage..."

"With a deadly long-term use side effect..." Riley smiled back coldly...

Well...Warren frowned at Spike...Yeah...

"But it's still a great thing for espionage...Or turning the tide on a losing field of battle..."

9:40 pm...Willow and I reached Xander and Anya's apartment building...Xander keeping his

word to me, headed off...

She scanned up and down the street in front...Nothing so far...

I nudged her...A light on in the apartment...

"Probably Giles..." Willow whispered...

But lets be sure...

"No magics, Will..."

Nope...Just good ole fashioned window smashing, Willow grinned...Tossing a small rock at

Xander's living room...

"Hello there...I'm...Buffy..." she looks him slowly up and down... "Oh...I wasn't expecting

someone...So...Attractive..." Buffy?...smiles seductively at a startled Giles who'd answered

Andrew's ring at Xander's door...

Andrew standing nervously behind her...

"Sorry...Running a little early...Got some other things to be done tonight, man..."

Well...he giggles at Giles...You like...?

Giles recovers his composure...The bot smiling at him...

"Hey...?" Andrew looks at him... "I know you from somewhere..."

"I used to be librarian at Sunnydale High..." Giles notes...

"Right..." Andrew nods...

Oh...Ummn...Say...You know...I did return that book...

"Mating Rituals of the World's Animals?"...No, you didn't...Giles replies...Sternly...

Damn...Andrew thinks...Fine's gonna kill me...

"Rupert Giles, Giles, Watcher?..." the bot's eyes widens...

Hmmn...Potential trouble here, Giles realizes...

Apparently they didn't delete all her old files...

"Danger, Andrew, Danger!...Slayer's friend!..." the bot suddenly cries...

Andrew backs off...The bot blocking the doorway...

"What the...? Buffy, who is this guy?..."

"Giles, Rupert Giles...Watcher...My advisor and guardian, like a second father to me..." the bot

replied, watching Giles while stretching her arms and legs to block the door...

Kind of Willow...Or Spike, possibly...To have included that in her biographical files...Giles

thinks...

"Buffy's Watcher?..." Andrew stares...Looking around in panic...

"Grab him, Buffy!...Protect me!...Kill him!..."

Ummn...The bot froze in the doorway...

"I can't hurt Rupert Giles...My Watcher who is a second father to me..." she pauses...

"And so sexy and handsome..." she continues...Looking him up and down again...

Hmmn...Was that her customer programming or was Willow trying to tease me?...Giles

wonders...

Geesh...Andrew thinks...Warren, man, you lazy...You were supposed to rewrite the old files and

remove the safety restrictions...

"Well, Buffy...Would you step aside and let me speak to Andrew there?..." Giles asks

pleasantly...

"I can't let you, Giles..." she replies...

"You may want to hurt Andrew and he is still one of my owners..."

"Should've waited for the title transfer, man..." Andrew giggles...

But he looks round again nervously...The Slayer and co must be in the vicinity...

"Botty?...We gotta get out of here...Now..." he tells her...

She begins to drop back...

"Andrew...?" Buffy calls from below, where she and Willow have just entered...

If a rock through a window doesn't catch Giles' attention...Something had to be up...

"You and my "sis" weren't planning to leave so soon?...I want to get caught up with her..."

And you...she frowns at him...As he looks over the hall railing down to her on the stairs...

"Hello, Buffy..." the bot calls...Waving a bit...

"Danger, Andrew..." she turns to him...

I know...I know...he nods sheepishly...

"I don't suppose you can fight Buffy, Botty? While I make a run for it?..." he asks hopefully...

"I'm really sorry Andrew...I can't fight Buffy who is Willow's best friend and..."

Ok...he sighs...Resigned...

Sunrise...Part XIX...

A subdued Andrew rode in back with me as we drove towards Willie's...Giles in front with

Willow...

Botty temporary deactivated at Xander's...Nice to have her back actually once she's

reprogrammed I noted to Willow...

A leetle extra support never hurts...

"Nice for Spike too..." Willow noted...Problem solved, maybe...she thought...

I froze and she caught my angry attitude...A little startled...

Well...she mumbled...She could keep an eye on him...

"I don't think so..." I said quietly...

Andrew sensing the slight tension...Right, she likes the Blonde One...Giggled a little...

I glared him silent...

God...Buffy...Make up your mind, Willow couldn't help thinking...

No, I didn't mean that...she hastily corrected to herself...Unless you make it up the right

way...The "help him if possible but keep away" way...Far away...

A philosophy she wouldn't mind imparting to Tara as well...

But I had a request for Willow...Much as I hated to have her use magics...

I couldn't let William find out...About what I'd done...Not yet anyway...

But he'd sense it's...Our baby girl's...Disappearance...If it wasn't masked somehow...

I wasn't ready to tell him...That she was gone...Or that in the end I'd tried to save her...

We were a block away...I suggested we park and walk the rest...

"Willow...?" I asked...As we got out...

"Can we talk a sec?..."

Violadus Fryn was pleased to receive the good news from Judith, his top aide...

Transaction successful...The human agents had purchased the artifacts during a busy time in the

shop that afternoon with no questions asked...And no sign of pursuit...

They were even now being installed at the altar site...Both the artifacts and the remains of the two

human agents...Likewise needed for completion...All was now ready except for the acquisition of

the sacrifice(s)...And steps had been taken to provide support for their human allies as planned...

Sacrifices...Fryn thought happily...Both the Slayer and the traitorous, but famed William the

Bloody...

And if what his ancestor D'Hoffryn had told him during their negotiations was true...A glorious

new addition to the ranks of demonhood was in the making...A worthy Queen of the

Underworld...Even if William the Bloody's time on Earth must end for it to be...

After all, his demon would live on in Hell...Though sadly with William's soul likely merged in

despair with Spike, there would be no chance of some future return of the demon to Earth...

But, even if D'Hoffryn failed to drive Ms. Summers' soul to merge with her demon...She and

her...Mate...were noble, courageous creatures whose destruction would be a credit to them all...

So worthy of the ceremony...

So romantic really...

Speaking of romance...He eyed the lovely Judith...

Who, like her lord, had the ability to appreciate the fact that very evil...and rather good...things

may come in small packages...

Riley had turned to studying the time warper...

Definitely not something he wished to see in the hands of some of his superiors...

All the more reason therefore to purchase the schematics and with wife Sam's help, alter them

just enough to make the device unworkable, if interesting...

Causing them to invest just enough time, cash, and energy to be deaf to any further research in

the field later...

Tara watched Jonathan carefully as he held the freeze ray...Little guy was definitely

uncomfortable...But then he was at least an accessory to murder...

Well, lets get this settled, get Buffy some cash, and we'll call in the cops later...she

frowned...Looking over to Spike...

This is not my preferred way of doing things, Will...Her look clearly said...

He grinned back...

Welcome to my world...His look said...

He glanced at the nerds...

Later...He stared back at her...

Her frown deepened...

The things we do for love...she thought, embarrassedly...

Warren caught the tail end of her frown...

"Eleanor Roosevelt over there dislikes dealing with us...?" he smirked at Spike...

Well...Spike grinned at him...She's got nothing against murderers, obviously...Hanging with me

and all...But arms deals go a little against her grain...

Jonathan winced again...

"Well..." Warren looked coldly at Tara... "Guess she'll find a way to deal...Once the money

comes in and she gets her cut..."

Or are you and she together on this...? he eyed Spike...Jonathan watching...

"Personal arrangements are personal, Warren, lad..." Spike smiled back coolly...

Gee...Warren smirked...Buffy will be crushed...

"Leaves her better off than your Katrina, doesn't it?..." Tara smiled back...

He glared...And turned to Riley...Still reviewing the time warper plans...

"Well...? Does it pass inspection?..."

Spike was keeping quietly close to Warren and the bar where Willie scurried back and forth,

rather hoping this particular bit of business would be concluded shortly...Or elsewhere...

Much as he wanted his cut...That Warren seemed like the vindictive type...

The bar-wrecking, vindictive type...One Willie was well acquainted with...

Besides...He was a witness...And if Warren ever learned that he knew about the murdered

girlfriend...

The head that bears a snitch's ears does not rest easy, he reflected...

But, after all...This was for love...Mainly...Willie looked at Spike...Shaking his head...

And he, Willie the Snitch...was a fool for love...Even vicariously...

Xander peered cautiously into Willie's through a side window...

Spike, Tara, Riley...Riley?..., Warren, and Jonathan...

Warren ranting about something, Jonathan holding something that looked mildly dangerous...

The nerds?...Riley?...Spike's "big deal" is with the nerds and Riley?...

Well...Who else...he thought...

But so far at least things seemed to be going smoothly...

"So..." Warren smirked... "Unique or no?..."

"Interesting..." Riley eyed him...

" 'Interesting'?...Our time warper alone would give any army an incredible advantage..." Warren

sneered... "And it's the basis for a more powerful system, maybe even allowing for time-travel..."

he noted...

Maybe we should be talking to some government that can appreciate new technology...he eyed

Riley narrowly...

So...You fellas watch Stephen Hawking on PBS, slap something together, and the government

should be impressed?...Riley stared at Warren...

Geesh...How'd he know?...Jonathan wondered...

"But..." Riley looked at the nerds... "There may be applications here..."

"$300,000...For the whole pile...With another $75,000 to your "fixer here..."

"$300,000!..." Warren choked... "For these?..."

"For a defective invisibility ray, a time warping system of limited capability, a clunky freezing

ray with very limited range, and robot soldiers who didn't last more than ten minutes against the

Slayer and a demon raiding crew, I'd say you were doing preety well..." Riley noted drily...

"$600,000...For us alone...You pay what you like to Eleanor and Blondie here..." Warren waved

at Spike and Tara...

Or we walk...

"$400,000...and $90,000 for our friends, only because I like them...Take it or leave it..."

"Maybe...We'll just freeze the bunch of you and take it all..."

Kid...Riley smiled...My authorization on the funds transfer and my safe return or you get nothing

and my people come looking for you...

"Geesh...Warren take it and lets get out of here..." Jonathan nervously told him...

Ok...$400,000...Warren spread his hands...

And a couple of hours grace to get out of town...he noted...

"Warren?..." Spike eyed him...

"There's another piece to this deal, remember...?"

We got your stuff...Warren replied, eyeing him...

"Jonathan..." Jonathan put down the freeze ray nozzle and pulled out some documents from a

folder by his side...

"The Wolfram-Hart resurrection ceremony..." Warren smiled...

Filched from their "secure" mainframe...he smirked...

Interesting read...

Tara eyed Spike...He nodded...

"Pass it over..." she told Jonathan...

"Whoa, there..." Warren raised a finger...

"Our money?..." he looked at Riley...

"$400,000 in the account of your choice...Use these codes..." he passed a sheet...

But if I and my friends here don't leave in one piece...

"Just a mo..." Warren turned on his laptop...

This can't be traced, you know...he smiled...

Magically protected as well as the best encryption software...

"For my friends' sake..." Riley smiled...Looking at Tara and Spike... "I wouldn't have it any

other way..."

Well...? Jonathan eyed Warren...Checking on the computer...

"Looks like GI man is playing it straight..." Warren looked at Riley...

Ok...Give the "magics expert" the stuff...he told Jonathan...

Tara took the ceremony instructions from him and began scanning them...

"They look like the real thing..." she paused...

Riley scooped up the disks and notes Warren had passed over...

"Well...Looks like we're done here..." he looked at Spike...

Nice work, "Doctor"...he smiled...

"One minute..." Warren looked up...

Ok...Transaction completed...he smiled...

"Boys..." he called to the three supernaturals waiting at the end of the bar...

"You're Fryn's people, right?..." he asked...

"Warren Mears?..." the demon asked...

The vamps moving forward, one blocking the door...

"That's me..." Warren grinned...

Uh-oh...sighed Willie, resuming his place back under the counter...

Jonathan?...Cover our guests...

See...Warren sneered...We've got backup...

And friends who can get us out of the area without any problems whatever GI man's friends try

to do to trace us...

Spike moved in front of Tara...

Well...? he eyed her...

"I'm not really much for combat spells, Spike..." she sighed...

"No good anyway, sweetie..." Warren giggled...

We screened the place from magics hours before you came...

"Not wise to break a deal with Uncle Sam, mate..." Spike noted...

Or with me...

Great...Hanging out with the living dead...Probably forever...Jonathan thought, sighing as he held

the freeze ray on Tara, Spike, and Riley...With one eye on Fryn's compatriots...

All I wanted to do was be Crime Lord of Sunnydale...And see if Buffy might consider dating me

once I was rich and powerful...

Now...I'm partners in a murder...And going into hiding with the living dead...

"Well...I'll deal with the guilt of betraying your confidence somehow..." Warren smirked...

"But hey...I'm a reasonable fellow..." he smiled... "And surprise...Our deal is still on..."

All of you can go...Except Spike...

"Hey...Just want a leetle extra hostage protection..." he smiled... "Until our friends get us out of

town..."

And it's not like I'm threatening any living being...he eyed Spike...

Go...Spike told them...

"I'll be fine..."

I'll stay...Tara looked at Warren...

Looks like you've got three hostages...Riley smiled...

Warren blinked...Geesch...

"Very noble...Look...Either you two leave...Now...Or my friends have a late after-dinner snack..."

Why do you want William?...Tara looked at him...

"The charm of his conversation..." Warren smiled...

Or maybe I'm just so shaken by recent events that I can't bear the thought of seriously

threatening another human being...he grinned...

Now...Are you two leaving?...Or freezing?...he looked at them...

"Look...You better go..." Jonathan told them... "While you still can..."

The demon and vamp near them watched carefully...

"Jonathan...What is he up to?..." Tara called to him...

Ok...Time's up...Warren glared...

"Excuse me..." Xander entered, pushing his way politely past the vamp standing to block the

door...

"Willie...? Hows about a beer?..." he banged on the counter...All eyes on him...

Hi...He smiled at the group...

You're not hosting a private party tonight, are you Willie?...he asked...

"I know you...Xander Harris...!" Warren looked at him...

"Warren Mears?...And hey, Jonathan...Long time no see..." Xander nodded...

"All right...That's it!...#$%! It!..." Warren yelled...

Everyone but Spike out...Now...Or we start freezing or eating...!

"I don't think Buffy is gonna appreciate you're leaving so soon Warren..." Xander noted...

Mears looked at him...Buffy?...

Spike looked at him...Buffy?...Coming here...?

For me?...

"Where is she?..." Warren cried...

Excitable little human, isn't he...Fryn's demon whispered to his vamp buddy...As they watched

Spike and Riley...

The boss said to be polite...the vamp hissed...

"Jonathan!...Start freezing!..." Warren called...

All of them but Spike...

Tara looked at Spike...Who shrugged...

"What can I say...Nerds flock to a dashing fellow like me...Must be the need for a strong male

role model..." he grinned...

Andrew entered, looking sheepish...Followed by...

Jonathan hesitated...That doesn't look like Botty to me...Something in that glassy stare isn't

quite...

"Andrew?..." Warren frowned...

What happened?...

"Uh...No show..." he muttered...Rolling his eyes...

"What's with your eyes?..." Warren asked...

"Nothing a good prison optometrist couldn't cure..." Buffy smiled at him, staking the vamp by

the door...

"George...?" the demon and vamp chorused in horror...

Sunrise...Part XX...

To their credit, Fryn's surviving "people" did their duty and moved to guard their boss' allies...

"Jonathan!..." Warren yelled...

"Freeze 'em all...!"

Jonathan looked at the glaring Buffy...Who'd clearly reached the end of her patience...

Ummn..

Spike hopped over to him...Buffy moving to cover Riley and Tara, but eyeing them...

"Jonathan?...Last chance...And you'll never hit both of us..."

He sighed and dropped the nozzle...

"Wise decision, mate..." Spike smiled at him, looking back at Buffy...

She came...For me...

Well...I suppose Tara was included in this...

Still...Oh, God...The little idiot!...

"Buffy?...What the hell are you thinking?..." he cried...

"Damn you!...Wuss!..." Mears bellowed at Jonathan...Racing for the back door as the demon and

vamp covered him, rather gallantly...

She looked at Spike...What?...

The baby...He glared at her...

Xander gulped a little even as he grabbed a chair to thwack the demon, closest of the two to

him...Giles entering with Willow just as he joined in...

God...the poor guy...he thought sympathetically...

Never thought I'd feel like this for Spike, Xander noted to himself...

Buffy shook her head and charged the vamp, Riley staking him from behind with a broken chair

leg...

"Baby?..." Riley blinked at her...

Long story...she muttered, hurrying past...

The demon blocked the door for a few seconds before Spike smashed him back...

"Buffy!...That's enough!..." he turned to her...

She eyed him...But stopped and let him go on ahead, following...

Willow looked at Xander who looked at her...

Never thought I feel like this...for Spike...she thought sadly...

Oh, God...Tara looked at them...No...

Oh, Buffy...Damn you...Why didn't you wait?...I could've checked it...And told you about...The

other...

Or, did you already know...? she thought bitterly... You heartless...

William has more soul dead...

But...she sighed to herself breathing deeply...It was your decision...Your right...

Oh, God...All over again...My poor William...And this time he knew he was a father...

She looked at Willow who looked over at her...And at Spike...

So, she knows...My poor Willow...

Xander and Giles, dragging Andrew and Jonathan in tow, headed for the front door to cover the

street...

Spike, followed by Buffy had raced out the back after Mears...The surviving demon making a

surprisingly brave fight of it...

Loyal crew, Spike thought...Pity it has to be for Mearsy...

Riley, Willow, and Tara emerged...To see Buffy carefully peering in the alley for Warren, while

Spike fought the demon...

Buffy's deliberately holding back...Tara realized, looking at Willow...Who stared back...

As if she were...Protecting her baby?...

And there's something odd about her aura...Hard to read or something...Cloudy almost...

"I've masked her..." Willow hissed, looking embarrassed...

"But the baby...?"

Yeah...Willow nodded sadly...

"She doesn't want Spike to know...Yet..."

"She tried to stop it, Tara...At the end..." Willow looked at her...

It was too late...

A crash of garbage cans exposed the hapless Mr. Mears...

But Buffy was still hesitant in pursuit...While Spike and Riley now were having a considerable

time with Fryn's demon...

And holding a hissed conversation...

"Baby?..." Riley glared at him...Smashing the demon in the back...

"Guess some of us have it in us...And some don't..." Spike whispered back, grinning...As he

dodged a desperate charge...

"She looks all right, do you think?..." he continued in a whisper...The demon staggered back,

looking desperately for help...

"I oughta let him have you right now...!" Riley hissed back...

The demon caught that and paused hopefully...

"Fine...But our deal's still on, right?...She'll need the cash you know..."

"Yeah, yeah..." Riley slammed his arm into the demon's stomach...

Ah well...the demon thought...Accepting his fate with resignation...

Say are they talking about the Slayer?...

A Slayer baby?...

"This isn't over, Slayer!" Warren screamed...Fleeing down the street, he hopped into a small car

and drove off...

Giles and Xander came up with Jonathan and Andrew...

The demon went down to a final blow from Riley...Spike cracking its neck...

"Jonathan..." Buffy nodded coldly at him...

Riley...? she glared a bit at him as he and Spike came over...

William...Why am I not surprised...?

"Ummn...Buffy..." Willow tapped her...

What?...

"Look!..." Willow pointed to where Warren was now driving back towards them...With two other

cars following...

"I think it's more of Fryn's "people"..." Jonathan noted... "Warren must have called them in a little

while ago..."

For you and Spike...he eyed Buffy...

"Buffy!..." Spike cried...As the cars bore down on them...

He raced over and pulled her back...

The cars roared to a stop...Six large demons emerged out of two while Warren watched carefully

from his vehicle...

Whoops...Willow looked at them...

Hmmn...Jonathan looked over at Giles...Who now carried the freeze ray...

"Just point and click..." he told him helpfully...

Giles fired, hitting the two closest in succession...Frozen solid...

Nice shooting...Jonathan noted...

More cars were racing up the street...

Spike looked back at them...And the four remaining demons moving carefully towards them...

Time for a quick withdrawal...he noted to Riley...

"No, it's my people..." Riley smiled...

Pulling out a small pocket beeper...

The cars pulled up, blocking Warren's...

The four demons were not quite up to the mark of their gallant compatriot and surrendered...

As did Warren...Grousing at Andrew and Jonathan...

A sad day for demonhood Spike noted...

No doubt the effect of you lot...he grinned at Riley...

POW rights for demons and all...With square meals and decent beds included...No wonder they

don't mind surrendering...Probably never had it so good...

Buffy was still moving cautiously about...Both Spike and Riley watching over her carefully...

Tara frowning a bit...

"Is she...Enjoying this?..." she eyed Willow...

Cut her some slack, sweetie...Willow told her...

You didn't see her an hour or so ago...

When the baby died I thought she was going to kill herself right then and there...

Tara sighed, nodding...

"It was another girl, wasn't it...?" she looked at Willow...

Yeah...Willow said sadly...Pausing...

She named it Anne...

A disaster...Fryn noted sadly to Judith as the reports reached him...

And if those unworthy prisoners talked even some danger to the home base, reasonably secure as

it was in the hills...

Time perhaps to remove to the river island where the ceremony is to be held...

Well...he sighed...Win some, lose some...

A volunteer for the ceremony could always be secured from among our ranks...he noted...

Well, lord...Judith sighed...A tad reluctant, but dutiful...

Judith?...Please...

"Your devotion is touching child, but really..." he noted...

If all the leadership starts sacrificing itself needlessly...Where will our people be?...

Take a lesson from Humanity, dear...The commanders live to fight another day...

But...he brightened...It's only Friday...We still have the entire weekend...

Sunrise...Part XXI...

I'd kept away from Spike after our fight with Warren and Fryn's "staff"...Hoping he wouldn't sense Willow's masking spell and catch on...

And hate me...

Odd, isn't it...The one thing above all I feared...That William would hate me...

He and Riley...Riley? involved in this nonsense, of all people...Were watching me...Concerned...

And I played along...Despite an occasional...Guys?...

Tara clearly aware and rather put out with me...At least until Willow spoke to her a moment...

But I couldn't let him find out...Not now...

Later...I'd try to find a kind way to tell him...

Kinder than the way I'd driven him off to his death a century ago...?

But my "guardian demon" had played a role there...One I had to get straight about...

First, though, I had to get home, let Dawn know how things had worked out...Maybe even, tell her and cry on her shoulder...

Anne...My Anne...My little girl...Our second little girl...

But what else could I have done?...Tell William and try to raise a possibly half-monster?...With a barely restrained maniac vampire for a father?...One who would never stop trying to be a part of our lives?...

Her soul at least was safe now...With little Cicely her sister...And Mom...And Mama, Papa, and cousin Henry...

I could have tried...A traitorous voice cried within...I could have told him and tried to help him...Saved him...Saved them both...Instead...

I had to get home...Hide in my bed and block out any thought of Cicely...And my...her...Husband...Our babies...I couldn't bear it...

But there was still the matter of dear ole Warren...Waiting in grousing fear in the hands of Riley's "friends"...

Jonathan, of all people, solved that problem rather quickly...

He'd had enough and offered to confess to his role in poor Katrina's death...

With that Andrew caved as well...

We took them over to the cops, Riley having dismissed his men with their demon captives...

"Where do they take demon prisoners?..." Willow asked him, a hair nervous...

No more experimentation, please...

A quarantined preserve on an island off the Central American coast Riley explained...

They are studied but no experimentation...And they can roam and hunt and live as they want...Excepting the use of magics and the chance to harm humans, they're as free as reasonably possible...

No experimentation...That you know of...Tara noted...

"Sam and I and others keep close tabs on the place...We don't want another Initiative either..." Riley replied...

Demonic Park...Willow grinned...Hmmn...Hope the computers there are more up to snuff...

At the station Warren whined a "who?..me?" protest...But realizing his best chance given his partners' confessions of avoiding sole responsibility and second- or first-degree murder was to come somewhat clean...He confessed as well...To an accident...

Well...What human jury was gonna believe Jonathan's "cerebral depressor" story?...And we could hope that it had been at least in part an accident...Calling for a manslaughter verdict...

We, the concerned citizens who'd persuaded these troubled boys to turn themselves in, headed out after giving brief statements...

The cops were rather anxious to get rid of us...They always hate seeing me or Willow or Giles involved in what otherwise would be clear-cut cases...

We always add that extra, bizarre dimension...

Riley pulled Spike over for a brief talk as we prepared to head home...

I said a quick goodbye to both, glaring a little at the imbecile boys...

My "wheeler-dealers..."

God bless 'em, I know I don't deserve them...

"You and you "Big Deal"...Geesch"...Shaking my head...

Yet I was having trouble leaving...Torn...

I could see William watching me as he and Riley spoke...Wanting to speak to me...

Joy lurking in his eyes...Oh...

I'd come for him, you see...I must still love him...Just as Tara had said...And in time...

I almost wished he'd hate me...

But oh God...If only I could take him somewhere and just cry on his shoulder for an hour...

But...I couldn't let him find out...And I couldn't let things start all over again...

Riley handed him something...And he came over...I looked at Giles to keep him from me...But...

He simply called to me and asked if I was heading straight home...I looked exhausted...

On that we concurred...As did Giles, Tara, Xander, Riley and Willow...

Riley wished us a good night...He'd stop by tomorrow before leaving...And try to explain what the hell...he grinned wryly...

I nodded, frowning a bit...Well at least the Troika was no more as a result...And...

I couldn't help it...I was only human...The others had leaked vague details of Spike's deal making...And cash had come to mean a great deal to me this past year...At least in terms of pushing back life's more mundane problems...

I wondered how well Spike had done for me...And how he'd get it to us...

The horrifying thought popped in my head...

Such a good husband I had...Fussing over my condition, risking so much to do his duty by me...

Considering all he had had to go through to provide for me...Not like those fools who had come to court me back in London...Everything in life handed on a platter to them...They'd sneered at my little poet...None of them could ever have endured...

I always known we'd manage...No matter what people and the family said about...

I came to myself with a start...Giles eyeing me in my reverie...

"Just pooped..." I grinned wanly at him...He nodded...

Tara chose to walk William home...Suddenly both Willow and I felt that a brief walk might not be the worst thing...But we were already in the car...

"Take care..." he called as we pulled away...

You too...I mouthed as we passed him...

He watched us all the way down the road until we turned...I saw him as I watched through the rear window...

As Xander watched me...Sympathetically...

Alls well that ends well...Giles noted as we sat...He, I, Dawn, Xander, Anya...At our kitchen table...

Mr. Fryn would have to settle for vamps to sacrifice...Unless he could get his hands on Faith...

Considering the Council's past and present unscrupulous behavior, not out of the bounds of possibility...he noted...Unlikely though, given the current situation...

Though we should see if we could locate his ceremonial site and put a stop to his activities...

"Why?..." I asked...Exhausted...And rather bitter...

He'd only be sacrificing his own kind...I noted...

Let the Council deal with him and his super-charged vamps...

"Many innocent lives could be lost if he succeeds, Buffy..." Giles eyed me...

I stared at him...

"Like William's...?" I asked...

Where was the Council's concern when they made a deal with D'Hoffryn and sent Halfreck to me...?

Dawn stared...Whoa...The Council...?

"I'm tired..." I looked at Giles...

Tired and I really don't care...

"If these fellows show up in town after their battery charging...I'll deal with them..."

Otherwise...I waved a hand...

Giles nodded, knowing it was best not to press...

And realized the real source of my exhaustion...Although when he and the others prepared to

leave, I found a few excuses to drag out the evening...

And begged him to stay with us when Xander suggested he crash with them...

I took Dawn up to bed after Xander and Anya finally escaped me and after more fussing around, settling Giles in on the living room couch...

Dawny...

Next to William, both the last person I wanted to face right now...And the one whose shoulder I most wanted to cry on...

I eyed her carefully as she kindly submitted to the closest supervision of her bedtime preparations since she was seven years old...

Finally, all set for bed...she looked at me...The kind, concerned face of an adult...Mom's face...

My Anne's Aunt Dawn...

"Buffy..." she sighed... Taking my hands...

"I know..."

She hugged me...

"I tried to save her...I tried..." I sobbed...

I awoke at ten...Still exhausted...Tottering down to the kitchen where Dawn, Willow, and Tara were talking...

Tara looking over the pages Spike had gotten from Warren last night...Pages which as yet meant nothing to me...And which he'd sworn her to keep mum about to me...

She packed them up, indicating she was about to head out...

Giles...? I looked at Dawn...

Out to the Magic Box...she noted...

Tara was heading out that way herself...Help Giles track our friend, Mr. Fryn...

Tara...I had questions for that quarter alright...But settled for a brief...

"Spike get home ok?..."

Fine, she replied...Avoiding Willow's look as well as mine...

Dawn grinned at her...

"You do it..."she nudged Tara...

I looked at them...

"Here..."Tara handed me...A check...

No point in trying to use Spike's original elaborate scheme to get it to you...she grinned faintly...

"Riley says it's ok...The government will get a lot more out of Warren's stuff than he let on to him..."

Besides they get to keep their money...For legal fees...she noted...

So...Why shouldn't you get to keep Spike's share...

$90,000...? I gasped...

Well...You'll have to deal with taxes and all...Tara explained...

But it should help...

I paused...Clearly hesitant...

Tara frowned...

"Don't do this to him, Buffy...You need it and he nearly killed himself to get for you..."

No strings are attached, he swears...she looked at me...Hopefully...

I nodded...Ok...

She got up...

Thank you, her look said...

"Can I meet you...At the Magic Box?...Later?..." I asked her...

I need some more help...With you know who...

My "guardian angel"...I thought grimly...

She nodded...

Willow hopped up to go with her...

"Willow?..." I eyed her...

Thanks for being there...I told her...

She smiled and nodded...

My Anne's godmother...

Dawn eyed me after they'd left...Hesitant...

"What?..." I looked at her...

Are you going to thank him?...she asked...

Yeah...Sure...I nodded...At the right time...Trembling inspite of myself

She looked away...Then at me...

"He'll forgive you..." she took my hands...He will...

I burst into tears...And ran to the couch...

"It's all so unfair...So hopeless..." I choked out...

Not hopeless...Dawn blurted out...As I stared at her...

Sighing, she told me what little Tara had told her about the Wolfram-Hart ceremony...

While I had sat...Fretting over our cruel fate...He'd been trying to change it...

Too late, perhaps...And maybe little chance of success...But

he'd loved me enough to try...

While I...

Willow followed alongside Tara...

"So..." she looked for an opening...

What do you say to your ex-lover who's been out till early morning with a male vampire...

A vampire surely desperate for a little...Comfort...

As for the Wolfram-Hart ceremony...? Willow began...

Tara sighed...

"I don't know...It looks very dangerous..."

"You and Will at it all night?..." Willow smiled...Nervously...

Whoa...

"I mean...At the ceremony documents..." she explained hastily...

Tara said nothing for a while...Then...

"Try to understand, Willow...There are things involved here I didn't understand myself...Couldn't see...Until last night... "

Things that may change us all...Forever...she eyed her rather sadly...

Willow looked at her...

"William was so close...Almost there, just beneath the surface...You could see it...You know that, Willow..."

We all saw it...And that must have triggered...she hesitated...

Sure, sure...Willow nodded, hastily...Yes, it's true...I saw it, too...

Tara looked away...

"A couple of nights ago...I had the strangest dream..." Tara went on...

Spike was in a church, begging for help...

"From Virgin Mary of all people...For Buffy..."

Willow stopped...Staring at her friend...

Tara...?

Tara looked at her...Tears streaming down her face...

"He was so desperate...So lonely..."

So lost...

He'd tried so hard...she paused, sobbing gently...

Someone had to help him...I had to help him...At last...

"I came to him and told him...That the practical was the best solution..."

Tara paused...

Well...Willow smiled faintly...

It was good advice...And things worked out well...

"Last night...He told me..."

He was in a church a couple days ago...And someone came to him...Advised him...

And...Then suddenly I...Knew...Tara looked at her...

"You must've...Some kind of subconscious thing...Telepathy spell...?" Willow looked at her...

"It's ok..." she patted Tara...

I understand...she eyed her...You don't have to feel...Anything bad about it...

You wanted to help...You want to help him...

And we did nothing to help him before...she thought sadly...Nothing...

Tara stared at her...And sighed...

"I don't say Buffy was wrong..." Tara paused... "She had to do what was right for her...But..."

He can't do it alone...

Somebody has to help him...Somebody has to care...And I...

"It's all right..." Willow hugged her...All right...she whispered, rocking her gently...

What you did...she looked at her friend...Whatever you did last night...Was beautiful, really...To help him...

"I can understand..." she began...Again...

"No..."

Tara pulled away...Tears glistening...Shaking her head...

You don't understand...

All we did last night was sit and talk until sunrise...

Mostly about Buffy...And Cicely...she grinned through her tears...

Going through all the stuff he'd kept from those days...

"He's a little single-minded on the subject of romance..."

Phew...Willow thought...

Not that I ever had any doubts...Even when she came in at 7 am this morning...

"Well then..." Willow began...

Tara eyed her...

"But then he told me that story...And I knew..."

I've been reaching out to him...Subconsciously and now...Consciously...For a reason...

She looked away...Then straight in Willow's eyes...

"I'm in love with him, Willow, that true's and you knew that already...But that's not the issue here..."

It's not just my sympathy for him...I owe him more than I can ever hope to repay...

"He comforted me when he should have cursed me...For my weakness...Oh, God my weakness..." she sobbed...

So weak that after my soul escaped limbo...And I was reborn and free...Here...I still hid from the truth...Ran from it...Until last night...

"Tara...? Baby?..." Willow felt a chill beginning to run down her spine...

"Willow, Cicely Addams is not the only person who's come back..."

Willow stared at her...Tara?...

Shy, innocent...Out of place in the world...

Almost as if she were from...Another era...

And in love with...

No...No...It can't be...She can't be...Not her...Not my Tara...

I can't be in love with...

"All those lives destroyed...And all the guilt...The shame...Is mine..." Tara sobbed...

"I couldn't stop her Willow...She was too strong for me..."

But...She is me...My dark half...Tara looked down...

"No...No..." Willow cried, backing away... "Don't tell me this!..."

Tara turned to her, pleading...

"I didn't know when we met, Willow...I didn't deceive you..."

It wasn't until...Buffy told me about her and Spike being together...And I saw him...Struggling to be William again...And began feeling for him...That I even began to have dreams...

Of my past...

"Forgive me..." Tara stood trembling...Falling to her knees...

"Forgive me, God...Forgive me, William...Forgive me..." she sobbed...

Willow came to her and wrapped an arm around her...

"It's all right baby...It's all right..." she whispered...

"I have to help him...Take care of him...Like he took care of me, before I escaped limbo somehow...You can see that now..." Tara whispered through her tears...

Yes...I see...Willow replied sadly...I see...Now...

"Drusilla, it's all right..." she whispered...

Sunrise...Part XXII...

Tara had something for me when we met at the shop...A box...From William...

She'd agreed to give it to me as he seemed so desperately sure it would help...But she suggested we move over to her dorm for more privacy...

Indicating Spike's presence below floors with a glance down...

I concurred...Disappointed as that might make Anya and Xander...

And nervous as it might make Giles...Eyeing me carefully when I explained where we were going...Suspecting whom we planned to consult...

A little to my surprise, Willow quietly agreed to stay behind when Tara asked her to...

Staring at her and smiling...Reassuringly...

A little chill crept in my heart...Tara had been with William all the previous night, I knew...

Maybe...She had something to tell me...Alone...

No...He couldn't have left...She was still reviewing the ceremony...

As long as there was even the slightest hope, he'd stay...I know...

I know, I know...Was there ever a Slayer so...?

The answer is yes...In 1880 there was...

Their guest reluctantly accepted Tara's and Buffy's invitation to join them in Tara's dorm room...But she was as interested in the contents of William's box as they were...

And she was rather interested to see how Cicely would handle Tara's little bombshell...

And after all...All three of them were linked by the love of William Soames Walthrop...

"How did he manage to keep these?...All these years..." Halfreck wondered aloud for all three of them...Looking at the other two...

Letters...From Cicely...to William...

And each letter...More loving, more devoted...

I...don't remember...these...Buffy stared at the faded letters...

Tara...And the "friend" who'd responded to the summons the two had made...Watched...

You do remember...Halfreck stared at her...Smiling faintly...She stroked her pendant...

Tara eyed her...

She's not cooperating out of sympathy...

"Buffy..." Tara called to her...

Careful...

Buffy paused, then nodded...

She stopped reading and quoted the rest from memory as Halfreck and Tara watched her...

"Don't believe what they say...Believe in me...As I believe in you..."

"...I will wait for you...I will be with you...I love you...Always...

Cicely..."

Buffy's hand shook as she held the letter...

I remember...she said wanly...

"He had a year left to finish Cambridge..." she told them blankly...Then he'd get settled in his work...

He thought we should wait...At least let him begin his career...

But I wanted him so badly...And the family suspected...Papa was going to see to it I was sent away...

And you married him...Secretly...Two days before he died...But you didn't wait for him...And you weren't with him...In the end...Halfreck noted...

"I...I couldn't ..."

I turned to Tara, pleading...

My jury...

"I was the Slayer...I couldn't walk from that..."

And I can't...I couldn't keep him round me...He wouldn't survive...And William has too many people who need him...His sister and brother...I...Can't...It was wrong...

I couldn't...She looked at the demon...

"And then you realized you were pregnant...With William's child..." Halfreck eyed her...

"I don't...I didn't know what to do...I couldn't tell anyone, not even Simon, my Watcher...I thought...Hoped...Now we could go away...We had to, now...Even Papa would have to accept things now..." Buffy stared off...

"I was glad, actually...I had a reason to leave...To take him and go...But..."

I meant to tell him that night...After the party...We were going to slip off together...

Henry agreed to tell my parents what we'd done...After we'd left...

William didn't like the idea of leaving like this but he knew Papa could have the marriage annulled...That I was already under terrible pressure to give him up...

He suspected I think...That I was unsure...About him...That that was why I pressed for the marriage so quickly...

But the baby would force my parents to accept things...

I'd tell him and...Leave with him...Go...

Anywhere...

But Henry was attacked...On his way home to us...Just lucky the vampire fled the police who came...

It was Darla, the elder female judging by Henry's description...

Angelis and his pride had come...The most dangerous vampires the Council had ever encountered...

And I knew...I couldn't walk away...Abandon my duty...

But...Will...And our baby...

"I didn't know what to do..."

I stared at my "guardian demon"...

And then...You came...

Courtesy of Simon and the Council...To "help" me reach a decision, you said...

Halfreck smiled...But a hair nervously...Perhaps a few too many memories revived the demon wondered...

"Think about all the burdens, Cicely...you said..." I went on...

You rushed into this...Wouldn't it all be so much easier...

If he would leave...Leave you free...

If your life were simple again...

Oh...God...I looked at Tara...

Yes...I said...yes...

"I was so frightened...I didn't know what would happen...I didn't..."

I just wanted...Things simple again...

That's all I wished for...That my life would be simple again...

"And...You made it so easy for me..." I stared at Halfreck...

"I didn't even have to face him...You took my place...And told him..."

But it had been my wish...Even if she had tricked me...

"The crypt...The other day..." I gasped, suddenly realizing...

Tara stared at me...

"You took my place...Again..." I eyed Halfreck...Who shrugged nervously...

Tried to drive him away again...

"It was what you wanted..." she replied...

You wanted him gone...And life simple again...Even more than before...

"I didn't know you were trying to separate us..." I paused, quietly staring...The hatred building...

Then or now...

"Drusilla..." Halfreck paused, staring at Tara...With a faint smile...

Tara staring back...

"Wasn't my fault...Just Fate..." Halfreck continued...

"As for William...Would you have decided any differently about pushing him away if I had told you how I'd do it?..."

I just stared at her...Quietly...

But I had no answer...

Halfreck sensed danger in my quiet mood...And departed...

But Tara was the quiet one I feared...My judge and jury...

"Do you want me to try recalling her?.." she asked...

No...I paused...

"I don't owe him anything, Tara..." I looked at her...

What happened back then...Was to another woman...

I'm sorry for him but...

Tara eyed me carefully...

"What about what you owe yourself...You and Cicely...?"

You have the right to be loved, Buffy...she paused...

And Cicely had the right...

Even a Slayer has that right...Whatever the Council or her own sense of duty may say...

And to be honest with yourself...

"I am being honest...I can't help him...I can't take the risk..."

She cut me off and went on...

"No...That's not it..."

"Since last night I've been doing..." she smiled wanly... "More research, Buffy..." she began...

And a lot of thinking...

You're not worried about demon Spike...And you're not all that worried about William failing...

Or that he'll betray you...Even leave you...

"It's William's fidelity that terrifies you...If you open your heart to him...It will be forever...You know that as well as I do..."

He's the staying type, she smiled at Buffy...However much he...May play at being Mr. Super Stud, courtesy of Spike...

And you're terrified of it...Having to help him...To be human...To survive...

Protecting him...

All your life...Beyond even...Cause if we can't help him to be human again, you'll have to take him with you when you die...Into Eternity...Together...

And the kind of commitment...And love...William Soames Walthrop has to give...The burden of it...Terrifies you...

"Just as it did in 1880, Cicely...When you let him be sent away...And my...other self killed our poor William..."

What...?

"You're not the only one with bad dreams of the past, Cicely..." Tara sighed...

And of all people, I should know how faithful and loving he is...Tara looked back at me...

She shook her head...

In his worst moments...He never blamed me...Took pity on me...

"Though the guilt was mine...My soul's weakness in failing to block my Evil One..." Tara bowed her head...And looked up at me...

Drusilla...? I gasped...

Reincarnation...The least efficient way to make amends for past wrongs...she smiled wanly at me...

"It wasn't until last night when...Talking to him again...He trying to spare me any hurt...Feeling that I'd been with him like this before..."

When his sweet soul tried to reach out, comfort me...All those years when I was trapped in limbo...

Until I found the strength to escape, be reborn...As you did...

And...Like you...I tried to hide from the past in my new life...Even when I was somehow called to Sunnydale to seek him out...And someday, somehow make amends...

As I told you, Buffy...She looked at my shocked face...

"Somebody had to care...

And who else if not the one whose demon murdered him..."

"Murderess!..." I screamed...Jumping up, I grabbed a chair...

To kill this thing that murdered my husband...Stole him away...

I gasped and caught my breath...

She eyed me sadly...Waiting...

I calmed...Put the chair down...And sat back down...My head in my hands...

After all...There were two murderesses here...Accomplices in the murder of William Soames Walthrop...

Tara...Drusilla...waited patiently until I'd recovered enough to look at her...

My husband's murderess...Her soul free and secure in its new body...

While my Will...A quiet flame of rage was building up again inside...

But...I knew in my heart she was not the real killer...

Even her insane counterpart didn't bear the guilt I did...

I let him be sent away...To his death...And never even faced him...

It didn't matter that the words weren't spoken by me...The intent was mine...

And in the end I had used them, hadn't I?...A century later...

"You're beneath me..."

"Cicely, I've given you time...A chance to decide what you want to do..." Tara continued...

"But you're just hurting him now...And I won't let you keeping doing that..."

I owe him...And care for him...Too much...

Rage surged again in me...

"You care...? Vampire!..."

"Murderess!..." I repeated...Cicely surging in me...

But I knew...She...Her demon...Had just been an instrument...

Of fate, Halfreck had said...

I know what I am...Tara/Dru eyed me...

And what I'm guilty of...

"He's my husband!...I won't let you take him again...!" I blurted out, angrily...

Hand to my mouth in shock...

"Then you should either help him...Or consider a divorce, Cicely..." Tara eyed me coolly...

She left me a few minutes later...Having told me that she had spoken to Willow...

I said nothing to her...Just staring...

"You can hate me, Buffy...Cicely..." Tara eyed me...

That's your right...

But...I won't let William be lost...Whether the ceremony works or not, his soul has to be kept safe...And if you won't help him...

Then leave him to me...As you did in 1880...

"I'll take care of him...The way his soul tried to care for me when I was lost..."

"Your demon...Is still killing..." I finally replied...

Aren't you proud...? I eyed her...

Tara...Drusilla...Looked me in the eyes...

"I'm not my demon, Buffy...And I'm not a Slayer...But if Will will agree...We'll deal with vampiral Dru in time..."

Even if I have to kill us both and have Willow use the resurrection ceremony to drive her back to Hell...

"How'd Willow take it?..." I

Better than I deserve...As I expected...Tara coolly replied...

"You haven't told him..." I eyed her...

Not yet...Tara replied...

Why...I asked, suddenly...Looking at her...Tara?...

Why did his soul stay with Spike?...Why didn't it go to limbo like yours?...

Why were you allowed to escape?...And my sweet Will trapped with Spike...?

"I don't know...Halfreck's curse in part suspended his soul's normal traverse to limbo, I think...But..."

Mainly I think...He wanted to stay...Fought to stay...

To be with his wife...In this world...Tara eyed me...

And paid a terrible price...Watching Spike from right up front all these horrible years...

"I'm still waiting for your answer...Will you help him?..."

I don't know how...I answered...

Maybe if your ceremony works...I paused...

"The ceremony may not work...And even if it does it will be a long time before I can try it...William's soul needs help now..."

I don't know how to help him...I repeated...

She sighed...Cicely...she began...

Cicely...Is dead...I replied...Looking away...

"Then I guess I have my answer..." she rose and left without looking at me again...

Back at the house, I was shocked to find him waiting upstairs...He'd slipped in somehow...

"I'm sorry..." he looked at me...

But...We have to talk...

"Out..." I hissed, trying to keep it down...

Dawn's out...he told me...

"Out, Will..." I replied...

I'll talk to you later...

"You came for me...Last night..." he stared at me...

You do love me...he smiled at me...

"Cicely...Somehow...I knew you'd come back for me...I knew what you said that night...Wasn't the end..."

Please, God...I thought...He hasn't remembered...At least not everything...

Not...That night in London...

When...

Two days before my "guardian demon" lent a hand...

Oh, merciful God please don't let him remember...Our wedding...

Nothing's changed, the voice in my head said...Nothing...

He's still...What he is...

Not my William...Not...My husband...And I can't pretend that he is...

Whatever Tara...Drusilla plans to do ...

I can't do this...I haven't the strength...

"Buffy..." he took my hand...Tenderly...Examining my face...

No, Will...I told him...Please go...

You're just afraid...Buffy...he insisted...His voice took on a pleading desperation...

Tara told me...You're just afraid...

Just as you were afraid in 1880...I understand now...

"You didn't drive me away because you'd changed your mind...You were just afraid..."

He hasn't remembered...Thank God, he doesn't remember...Not yet...

"Don't be afraid...Love me..." he embraced me...

"You came back for me, Cicely...You love me..." he whispered...

Your William is dead...This is not William...I told myself...

You came to save me...Save me...And our baby...he pleaded...Kissing me...

Our baby...I thought...Oh Will...No...

No, I can't do this to him...Let him know...It would only hurt him needlessly...

My husband is dead...

Cicely...Cicely...He repeated...Kissing me...

No!...I told him...

"I won't be Cicely for you...Stop this!..."

He grabbed hard at me as I tried to pull away...

"Cicely!..." he pulled me hard against him...

"Don't make me hate you, William!..." I hissed and pushed him back and he paused...Shaking...

A sound from below...

Giles...I hissed...Home...

"Buffy?..." he called...

"It's ok Giles..." I called back...

Ok...

"I'm sorry...Sorry..." he backed away...

"Is this... "Being William for me"...?" I asked...

"Is that your kind of love?..." I looked at him...

"Spike..."

"You don't know what I've been through...All these years without hope..." he gasped...

I'm sorry...he began again...Can't you understand?...

"The only thing keeping anything of me alive has been knowing, somehow, that you'd come for me...There must have been a reason for that...I heard you...Calling to me..."

"I'm not here for you...Cicely is dead...And you are not William..." I paused...Breathing hard...

Anyway...

"Maybe I didn't love you enough then either..." I said...

Maybe that's the reason I sent you away...I looked at him...

He stood back from me...Eyeing me strangely...

"The baby...I'm not feeling it the same way...There's a cloud..."

I hesitated...And lied in a rush...

"Willow's protected it...I didn't want to take any chances..."

I haven't decided yet...I finished lamely...

He trembled...Staring at me...And walked to the stairs...

Giles came to the foot of the stairs, eyeing us...

"It's ok, Giles..." I called down to him...

I can deal here...Please...

He nodded quietly and went to the kitchen...

William just stared at me from the top of the stairs...

I gulped...I was angry I began...I hadn't meant to say what I'd said...But he had to understand...

Tell him it's a lie...Something screamed inside me...A lie!...We didn't send him away...

But it wasn't all a lie...And we did send him away...

He paused...Taking something from his pocket...A little packet...

"You know...I've been keeping this for years...Never quite understood why..."

He dropped it, walked down the stairs, and pausing to wrap his coat around against the last rays of sun, went out the door without another word...

Does he know?...Oh, God...Will, I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...

I picked up the packet and hurried downstairs...

And suddenly I heard him outside...Softly, bitterly singing...

"You were my sunshine...My only sunshine..." Smashing a stick as he walked...

I went to the door...And watched him walking away...Praying he'd go to Tara's...

But knowing where he was headed...Even if I didn't know the location...I knew where he was going...

Home...

For the best?...Maybe...

What could I do for Spike?...I couldn't love him...And I couldn't give my William peace...

Yet I couldn't let Drusilla have him...Not even human Drusilla...So...

A cold stern voice raged in me...Coward!...It screamed...

No...William is dead...And so is Cicely...I told the voices crying out in my head...

"Murderess!"

"You made happ-y...When skies were grey..."

"William..." I called faintly, almost involuntarily...Standing at the door...

I looked at the clock...Six-thirty...Exactly 12 hours to sunrise...

"You'll never know dear...How much I loved you..." drifted over...

I looked down at what he'd dropped...And unwrapped it...

A wedding band...The one I gave him back in London that night in 1880...

"Eternity is ours..." inscribed on the inside...A pretty common one in our day...But hey, we were conventional Victorians in some ways...

Anyway I'd liked it...

Giles re-entered from the kitchen...

Buffy?...He stared at me...Turning the band over in my hands...

William hadn't forgotten...He'd just waited, hoping I'd remember...

He wouldn't want to hurt me if I couldn't remember...

It was my turn to tremble...

A lone demon sentry covered the entrance to Fryn's old lair...Almost everything necessary to the ceremony had been removed...Just one more load and he and the last three packing below could go, thank "St. Vitulus"...

He sensed something coming...A fellow underdweller...Vampiral...

A blonde-haired figure, in an unmistakable long black coat emerged from the twilight fog on the dirt road to the cavern...

"William the Bloody..." the demon gasped...

Great...I had to be the one to get the last watch...he sighed...

He tensed for battle...Pressing his beeper...God, guys get up here...Fast...

"Your boss around, mate?..." Spike smiled at him...Raising his hands in a peaceful gesture...

Understand he's looking for a volunteer for tomorrow morning's festivities...

Sunrise...Part XXIII...

While I held my husband's wedding band in my hand, Xander called...

Giles went to the phone...

News...Regarding Fryn's group...

A bunch of stuff had been stolen from various construction sites...Including Xander's own...

By rather strange-looking creatures, one of whom had just been caught at Xander's site by a rather angry foreman Harris...And now seemed quite willing to spill the beans as to the whereabouts of his boss' base in the hills outside town...

He and An were bringing him...With proper restraints...

"Great..." I nodded...Putting William's wedding band in my blouse pocket...

Oddly enough the blouse I'd worn the day came back...And he was so good to me, so concerned for me...So William for me...

Patching my bleeding hands...Trying to apologize for failing...

What a joke, huh?...For failing me...Me...

Who patched his hands when he and Spike tore their way out?...

"Buffy...? May I see that ring?..." Giles asked...

It's nothing, Giles...Just an heirloom William...Spike...Wanted me to take...

I shouldn't have accepted it from him, I know...

"It's nothing..." I stared at him...He stared back...

I pulled it out and gave it to him...He examined it carefully...

"No...There's nothing here but a ring..."

"You thought he'd use magic on me?..." I couldn't keep the anger out of my voice...

You've never trusted him...I began...

He eyed with surprise...Of course he's never trusted him...I reminded myself...

Killer vampire, Slayer...Watchers can see a problem in such things...

"I'm sorry..." I resumed...hastily...

Things...

"I understand..." Giles nodded...

"My ring?..." I asked nervously...He handed it back...I put it back...

Next to my heart...

"I'm sorry my dear...Truly..." he looked at me...

"I've sent him away again..." I stared at him...

"Me...Not Halfreck this time..."

He won't be back...

"But hey..." I put a broken smile on my face...Trembling...

Problem solved, eh...I clasped my hands desperately...

"He'll be all right...In the end, Cicely will find him in Eternity..." Giles put a hand on my shoulder...

No...I shook my head...He'll be lost in Spike now and...

That will be that...

Unless of course I...Cicely and I ...Wind up in Hell...

"That's the punishment for murder, isn't it?..." I looked at Giles...

"I don't think William's soul will ever give into Spike, Buffy..." Giles said quietly...

I nodded...And smiled a bit at him...My sweet Giles...

But he was right...I was wrong to doubt...My Will would never give in...Even if he had accepted losing me at last...But...

"No..." I agreed...He won't give in...Ever...

But I've lost him forever now...

Giles sighed...

"Let me review the ceremony with Tara and Willow...See if anything can be done..."

It's too late now...I replied...

A ring at the door...Xander, Anya, and their "guest"...A large, fur-covered type...Not all that menacing really...And quite willing to cooperate now...

After all, he'd expected to be killed immediately on his capture...Instead, the about-to-be Harrises had bought him a large shake when he'd seemed to be panting a bit...

Much to the surprise of those assembled at our table...Giles, Dawny, Xander, Anya, and Floyd the furball...

I seemed suddenly rather gung-ho for an assault on Fortress Fryn...

Anything to take my mind off...

Of course, in the back of my mind the thought did occur that he might still be there...Even though Floyd had told us Fryn was in process of pulling out to his island...Just where that was, he swore not to know...Sucking happily at his vanilla shake...

Honest, he assured us...Mr. Fryn didn't believe in circulating a lot of key information to the lesser staff...

Giles found it possible to believe that...Looking at Floyd...

But the island was somewhere out on the lake formed by the Sunnydale Dam...Floyd noted...

He was sure of that much...

One of nearly 20 little such...All practically uninhabited...

Anya got me aside for a sec...Just as we agreed that Xander, she, and I would head over with Floyd to the hill base...Giles to contact Willow and Tara and see if they could join us in the hills...The decision on trying the island sites could be made after they came in and could try locating the group...

"Where's Spike?..." she asked...He said he'd be here, was going to speak with you for a moment...

"He left..." I replied...Shortly...

You saw his box of letters...? she asked...

The one Tara took...

"Yeah..."

And...?

"And...Cicely is dead...As I told him..."

He finally got it, I think...I eyed her...

Anya looked at me...The others were gathering stuff...Dawn passed through the living room, eying us...But realized from our looks that we required some space...

She knew exactly what I meant...

"You are a jealous little wifey...Aren't you Cicely?..." Anya whispered harshly...

You couldn't lie to him...Tell him you'd think it over...To wait and see...Try the ceremony...

Then leave him to Tara...

No...It was either you or dead...And dead is so much simpler for you, isn't?...

I glared at her...

"When Xander left me...I tried to revert back..." Anya paused...

I wanted to hurt him, kill him for what he did...

But at least...she paused...

"At least Xander left me at the altar...Not after the wedding..."

Not after promising never to abandon me...

Not when I needed him to protect me against that demon...

Like you did...

"Enough..." I whispered...That's enough, Anya...

And even then...From the moment he started breaking free of Spike...He wanted to save you, protect you...All Will wanted was for you to admit you were Cicely...And that you loved him...

"Enough!..."

"I guess it's true what we used say about Slayers when I was a demon...They haven't it in them to love..."

I grabbed her by the throat...And let her go...She caught her breath...Eying me...

"It's what makes them such efficient killers..." she smiled coldly at me...

I breathed deeply...Snap her little neck...Snap it and never hear that voice again...Accusing me...

Instead I pulled his ring out...And gave it to her...

She stared at it...Read the inscription...

"His...?" she looked at me...

Yes...I hesitated...

Ours...I said...

"Anya...?"

What did he do?...

She stared at me...What did...?

"Xander...What did he do to...?"

She blinked at me...We heard the others moving around...And then...She understood...

"He told me he still loved me and made me believe it..."

It was that simple...? I stared at her...

That simple...she nodded...

"I betrayed him Anya...Twice...How can he forgive me?..."

Buffy...Anya took my hand...

"All that mattered to me in the end was...He came back..."

Giles came back in...

"Change of plans, Giles..." I told him...

"I think I'd better collect Tara myself...I don't the vamps will be on their hilltop and I'd like to start trying the islands right away...Xander and Anya can scout out the hills and see if anyone's there..."

He eyed me curiously but agreed it might be a better idea...If Anya and Xander were in agreement and would promise not to try probing the cavern without backup...

Anya nodded...Staring at me...

At Tara's...I explained the plan to her briefly...Could she try to find anything that might allow us to locate the vampire group on their specific island...?

Spike's gone out there, I think...He might be in danger as well, I noted...Eying her...

"Spike...? Why...?" Tara looked at me...

What did you say to him?...she asked me...Somewhat harshly...

"I was a little hard on him..." I looked away...

But...I'd been thinking, and perhaps I'd been too hard...Too afraid of the consequences of trying to help the poor guy...I'd try a little kindness...Encourage him to try the ceremony...

Then we'd see what we'd see...

Tara nodded...She went over to grab some things...

Ummn...Drusilla...? I turned to her...

Tara...? I corrected...hastily...

Sorry...

"I want to try Halfreck one more time...Alone..."

Maybe she'd be willing to help if she thinks Spike's in danger...But she won't respond to a voice summons from me...

"That's dangerous, Buffy..." Tara looked at me...

Exactly...So...If you'd set things up...And wait in the other room...I paused...Looking as innocent as I could...

Well...

Thanks, I smiled...

Miss Bulging Veins appeared on cue at my summons...Following Tara's instructions...

Oh, not again...Halfreck sighed...Staring at me...

Look...Ms. Summers...I've told you all I can...All I'm allowed to...

Unless you have a specific wish...she paused...A bit hopefully...

"D'Hoffryn tricked you too, Halfreck...He told you Spike would be yours if you helped to drive William out for good, didn't he?..." I looked at her...

She stared at me...

"Spike will be destroyed with William...They'll both fall back into Hell..." I looked at her...

With no hope of return here...

Well...Perhaps only no hope of William returning to me...But I was telling the truth about Spike...

"No..." Halfreck looked at me...

Spike?...Gone...?

She looked away, hesitating...And I had my moment...

I grabbed her pendant and snapped it off her neck...

"No!..." Halfreck screamed...Reverting to human form...

I held the pendant in my hand...And closing my fist...Wished...

Nothing...Unless, maybe...

"No...Buffy...I'm not permitting this wish to go through..." a voice called from behind...

"D'Hoffryn..." Halfreck gasped... "Help me!..."

"Hmmn...I'm sorry, my dear...You know the rules...I'm afraid your fate is now up to Ms. Summers..." D'Hoffryn eyed her...

"Give William back his life!..." I cried...

"I didn't take it away...And Halfreck has already told you that we cannot reverse that which we had no hand in..." he replied...

"You tricked me...She took my place..." I glared at him...

"Only because you allowed it...Your wish...To be free of this...Burden..."

Halfreck had her own bone to pick...

"D'Hoffryn?...Was she telling the truth? Did you lie to me about Spike?"

He sighed and frowned at me...

Haly...Have I ever lied to you?...

"If you'd succeeded and driven Will out, Spike would have been free for you..."

But...The Vitulus ceremony will destroy Spike...

I warned you that you would lose him if you failed...

"Consequences of failure, sweetheart..." he told her...Sympathetically...

And consequences of wish, Ms. Summers...he returned to me...

"I was afraid...For a moment...Just a moment..."

It wasn't William I wanted to be free of...

"Your fear ran very deep, Buffy...And it centered on William..." D'Hoffryn noted...

For him...I was afraid for him...

"Please..."

He eyed me carefully...

"What are you prepared to offer in exchange?...After all this is quite a wish..."

"I won't join you..." I looked at him...

"Not even for William..."

"I couldn't even for William...Besides..." I eyed him... "It would only separate us..."

D'Hoffryn nodded and paused...

"It's true...I do want you for my ranks, Ms. Summers...Or if you prefer, Ms. Addams..."

Or...Mrs. Walthrop...he smiled...

"After all...I've never quite understood why you humans cling so desperately to your few little years here on this ball of rock and tears...When immortality can be yours with a wish..."

"We're already immortal...What you offer is eternal death...And I'd lose him in any case..." I hastily replied...Not thinking, as if...

As if Cicely had answered for us...

I don't find it... "Eternal death"...Halfreck interjected...

"Well..." the demon lord smiled... "Depends on your point of view, really..."

"In any case, Buffy...The decision on William is and has always been yours...However much I and your Council may have tried to influence it..."

"I didn't ask for his condemnation...For Drusilla..."

"But it was your wish that drove him away...And into her arms...Both the demon...And..."

he looked at the door behind which Tara waited...

"I don't believe you..."

Odd...he smiled...Considering you just drove him away again...Knowing he'd die...Again...

"I loved him..." I said simply...

Not enough, it seems...he replied...Looking at me firmly...

"What do you want, Buffy...Cicely?...The fact is...I can't drive Spike out without killing William as well...I don't have power over souls and demon essences..."

All I could do at best would be to give him what you yourself could even more easily...Slayer...

You can't help him?...I stared at the demon...

"Buffy...William has placed his fate in your hands...When you called for help, you made a decision that only you can change...He was bound by it because he refused to give you up...Even in his worst moments of despair..."

"I was afraid for him...And for me...He...We can't suffer forever because I had a moment's doubt...It isn't right...It's not fair..."

He paused...

"Life is not fair, Cicely...But he can still be saved...If you want to save him..."

I won't join you...I repeated...

"I'm aware of that...And that you see me as a fiend who took heartless advantage of you and William...But, remember, Ms. Summers...Your Council...And you...Were the ones who appealed to me...And as Anya must have told you...I do care...And I have compassion...Of a kind..."

Even if my pov is radically different from the human one...

"William is being taken to a river island near the Sunnydale dam...Located here..." he waved a map into existence...And pointed...

"But...How can I help him?...I can't be sure about the resurrection ceremony...And I can't kill him..."

"Then allow the ceremony to continue and let them solve your problem for you..." he eyed me...

"If he dies...Is destroyed...in this ceremony...?"

"If William dies in despair...The little foothold his soul has been able to maintain here will break...He may merge with Spike as you said...Or his soul may find peace at last...But he will be lost to you... "

"What can I do for him?..." I pleaded...Tell me...

"Why did you come back, Cicely...? Ask yourself that..." he asked me...Kindly...

Why...?

"Dawny...My friends...My duty...Willow summoned me..."

"No, Cicely..." D'Hoffryn looked at me...Sympathetically?... "Not Buffy...Why did you come back?"

"I..."

After the chip...And after he said he loved me...I...Started...Having feelings...

Then I died...And I knew I'd left something behind...Someone...

Oh...

I wanted to see him..I sobbed...

"I just wanted to see my husband...again..."

"I had to see him again...And I'd never see him in the afterlife...until his soul's free..."

If he'll even come to me then...

His soul has lived on a crumb of hope for 122 years...the demon smiled...

Another crumb is probably due...

After all...It's his soul that matters, isn't it?...D'Hoffryn eyed me...

The immortal in all of you...

And that's what truly at stake here...

"But..." he smiled... "The decision is up to you...As it always was...You can save his soul with a few words...Just as..."

Halfreck...Not me...I glared...

"Well...Now you can prove it..." he nodded calmly...

Wish granted...By yourself...If it is what you want...

"That was what you wanted wasn't it?...The chance to save him yourself...?"

Another satisfied customer...

I let Tara back in the room...

Human Halfreck sobbing brokenly off in a corner...

Tara looked at her...And me...

"He's going to the ceremony...Off the dam on the Sunnydale river...To be sacrificed in my place..." I told her blankly...

Protecting me...Just as always...

Freeing me...From him...For good...

And in spite of what I'd done to him...

His nature...Unchangeable, unswerving...Forever committed...Whatever clouds Spike and

Halfreck...And...Your counterpart...had thrown over his soul...

"I drove him away again...At last...And probably for good this time..."

Tara stared back at me...There was some anger, even maybe, a little hatred, mixed in that look, along with the usual sympathy, kindness...And pity...

"What are we going to do?..." Tara looked at me... "We can't sit by and let him die..."

Again...she did not say...But we both felt the word hanging in the air...

"I don't know..." I stared at her...

But I did know...And when she turned her back on me, I was on her in a second...

Much as I'd have appreciated Tara's help here...I knew where to go now and this was a private matter...Between my William and me...

I had something to ask him...

"Help me get her to the basement, Halfreck..." I told the startled former demon...

You're human now...And I can hurt you...

Or, maybe...Intercede with D'Hoffryn later...I eyed her...

I had to stop off at home one last time...Just a moment...

Just in case...

Dawn looked at me...And knew...

You're going after him...she said quietly...

And you're not sure...

"I want to live Dawn...And I will try to come back...But..."

But...You came back to save Will...she looked at me...I know...

"I think I knew ever since you told me you were in love with him..."

Odd...That she should have known before I did...But then I guess reincarnation confuses you as much as it helps clarify things...And she is part of me...

"It's funny..." she said... "Right from the start I knew kinda...That he was like a brother somehow..."

Mom knew too...She looked at me...

Was Mom?...Your...Cicely's...Mother, too...?

"I don't know..." I replied...

"But you're right...She did know...Somehow...About Will and me..."

You know, I grinned, thinking...It was my cousin Henry who introduced us...Gave us a place to stay, helped us hide our affair from the family...He always loved and helped us both...

Be interesting if Mom was him, back to help us again...I smiled...

But before I went I had one other person to speak to...One more piece from Cicely's past, I now knew...

And someone with whom in any case I had to make my peace with...

He was already back at the shop...Reviewing the Wolfram-Hart ceremony info Tara'd passed on to him...

For us...For me...Whatever misgivings he had...

Just as he was always there for me...Now...

And in 1880...

He looked up as I came in...

"Giles..." I smiled at him...

I looked at his table layer of notes...

"The Wolfram-Hart ceremony...?" I asked...

He nodded...

Anything...? I eyed him, hopefully...

"I can't say for sure...But there's a chance..."

A chance...

"I'm going to the island to find him..." I told him...

We'll try when we get back...

But whether it works or not...

He nodded...

"I understand..." Giles smiled at me...

Can't quite give you my blessing...But...

"Whatever happens...I don't want you to blame yourself..." I told him...

"You never abandoned me...Never..."

"Papa ..." I hugged him...

He pulled back and stared at me...Buffy?...

"You don't remember..." I smiled gently at him... "That's alright..."

I can remember now for both of us...

"In some ways I deeply regret this, I must say, William..." Fryn spoke kindly to Spike as he marched alongside the wagon in which the blonde vampire was being carried...

"You were a legend in your time, you know..."

Always nice to be remembered...Spike smiled at the little ruler kindly...

"But after all...Given my Science-restrained condition, just as well I go out with a bang, eh?..."

Fryn nodded...

Good fellow this William the Bloody...A credit to his kind in a way...

A worthy sacrifice even without his Slayer...

And after all, he had been a kind of Slayer for over a year now...

"I have selected the intermezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana" as our..." Fryn smiled kindly... "your...closing piece of music..."

Beautiful piece for a sunrise...Spike agreed pleasantly...

"However if you would like something additional?..."

"I was always a Gilbert and Sullivan fan in my human days..." Spike noted smiling back...

Ah...Fryn nodded...

"Perhaps... "The Sun Whose Rays..." From "The Mikado..."...?" he suggested...An appropriate piece...

And containing my favorite poetic adjective, William thought...Smiling...

"Sounds fine..." he nodded...

"It shall be done...And I will see that the sacrifice is carried out with all due ceremony, my friend..." Fryn smiled back...

You will be remembered with honor even among your enemies...

"I agree..." Buffy called from the rocky outcrop she'd slipped up to...Just ahead of the procession...

Slayer?...Fryn looked up in shock...As did several of his guards...

"Summers..." Spike called up...Sighing...

"This is a private affair...No humans allowed..."

Girl, make-up your Goddamned mind...he thought...With a little blossom of joy breaking through...

She came for me...Again she came after me...Cicely-Buffy...To the rescue...

My heroine...

Bloody #$%ing hell!...The baby!...

If I was wrong...And she hasn't...

"Buffy!...What the hell do you think you doing?..." he called...

"Sorry..." she grinned at them...Taking in the group in a sweep...

I need to borrow Mr. Walthrop for a while...A consult with my boss kinda thing...

Boss?...Fryn blinked at William in confusion...While wisely dropping back to the cover of his guards...

He'd reviewed the Slayer's past actions in depressing detail...Much as he had faith in the quality and determination of his followers...

"I've resigned..." William eyed her, unable to keep a grin off his face...As she hopped down to the wagon where he stood, chained in his wooden cage...Standing beside him, looking for some way to break in...

"Buffy...The baby?...What about?..." he hissed, trying not to be heard...Not something to give away to the fellows milling about...

It's fine, it's fine...she quietly called back...

Really...Our girl is fine...she eyed him...

He won't believe me unless there's a reason...It's not wrong to lie to save him...

And she is fine, our Anne...Safe with her sister...In Heaven...

I just have to keep him safe until I can make him believe in me...

A rather odd turn of events, she thought wryly...As she spied the door at the top...

Unusual design...she noted to him...

The "voluntary" sacrifices must give them quite a lot of trouble to put the only door in the top...

Our girl?...he looked at her in wonder as she scrambled over the cage...Dodging the few arrows and spears a few guards managed to throw or fire...

Could it really be true...? She's really going to...

"I'll take it easy..." she grinned at him...

"Just watch out while I get this thing open..." she began fussing with the cage from the top as the startled underworlders struggled to get themselves together and retake their prisoner...

"Buffy...Have you got any idea what an embarrassing situation you're making for me?..." he called up to her...She clambering over the cage, kicking back the vamp and demon guards rushing to her...

"Gave my word here, you know..."

"So did I...In 1880..." she replied...And I'm the one disrupting things here...

Be careful...he looked at the guards moving up...Now trying to climb into the wagon and up the cage to her...

"Stop her...!" Judith and Fryn cried...

"Duck, William!..." Buffy cried as a small volley of arrows came their way...

He dropped to the side and they missed him...He kicked at several of the guards clambering up the cage towards the Slayer...

She smashed the top of the cage open and began rocking it from the top as she lay spread-eagled, kicking off several of the guards as she did...

Watch it!...Damn you, Summers...he cried as the cage tipped over and out of the wagon...

Buffy jumping just before it hit ground...

"Summers!...Are you ok?...Buffy!..." Crash...

"Spike!..." she screamed to him...

"What?" he called back from the shattered cage now in pieces about him...

"Run!...This way!..."

Oh, right...he called...Manacled like this, you want me to do the 100 yards dash?...

"God, you never change girl!..." he yelled...Hobbling as best he could towards her...

"I love you too!..." she called to him...

The scattered remaining guards stumbling after them in the dark...

Judith coming up in support...

Buffy saw the large female hurrying up and raced back to Spike...No time to break chains...

She lifted him on her back holding him by the chains...

"Damn it Buffy...I can walk..."

This is so embarass ing...he looked back from where he lay on Buffy's small back... Feet kicking in the air...At the pursuing Judith and her guards...A rather put out Fryn back by the wagon, gathering survivors...

Oh...Christ...The kid...

"Buffy?...You're going to hurt yourself...Put me down..."

"I'm fine..." she called up to him...

Think of the...Our baby...He called back...

"They've fallen behind a bit..." he continued...

She halted a second, dropping him...

Damn...I didn't mean to drop me like a sack of potatoes...he groused...

She broke his chains and eyed him on the ground...WELL?...she asked...Breathing hard...

Thanks...he grinned...Struggling to his feet...

She looked back at the rushing vamps, Judith in the lead...

"You are ok, right?..." he asked anxiously...

Yeah, yeah...

Het-hem...she turned to him...

Oh...He smiled...

"Yeah...I love you too..."

In that case...You're welcome...she smiled archly...

They raced on down to the road where she'd left Tara's car...

Oops...Fryn's numbers were more impressive than I thought, Buffy noted...Seeing the number of vamps and demons surrounding the car...And looking in their direction...

"Well...?" Spike eyed her...

"Can't you take a leetle initiative once in a while, William?..." she glared at him...

In our day...You may recall...A gentleman took the lead and...

A volley of arrows cut her speech short...

"Back to the lake...They have a raft and boats there..." Spike grabbed her arm...

You are ok, right?...he looked at her anxiously...As they paused after racing up the hill...To the other side of where Judith and co were coming to join their compatriots...

Fine, fine...Geesch...she groused...

"I have done this without you around, you know, Will..." she noted...

"And you lost our first girl..." He stared back...

I'm sorry...he hastily added...Buffy...I didn't mean...

You knew...?...About little Cicely...? she paused...

"Cicely?..." he smiled...

You like it?...she beamed at him...

"Of course I do..." he paused...

"My poor Cicelys..." he looked at her...

I'm so sorry, love...he took her hands for a moment...

An arrow fell just in front of them...Hmmn...

Better save the mourning a bit...

Oops...Buffy...he pointed...At a boat...

And looked back at our pursuers...

"Pick up the legs, girl..."

The raft and other boats had only a total of three guards around them...

What a sweet guy...she thought, racing after him...God, I'm so lucky...

She smashed her stake into the closest of the three guards...

Bless you Henry for bringing him to meet me...

Spike dragged the boat out a bit, having dispatched a second guard...

She dodged the third...

"Buffy...?" William called...Be...

I am being careful, William...she called back, a hair peeved...

So sweet...She smashed her stake into the last guard...

But when he finds out...? About Anne...?

He'll cry with me...And forgive me...she eyed him as he called to her...The boat and oars ready...

He already has forgiven me...

It's his nature...

Sunrise...Part XXIV...

A groggy but furious Tara, bound and gagged in the basement of the dorm where Buffy had dragged her finally managed enough noise to alert the dorm janitor who released her...

She left a brief message on Willow's message unit...

She was off to "help" Buffy with an upset Spike who'd run off and might be out to do something foolish...And didn't think any other help would be required...

She'd deal...Just fine...

"Halfreck?..." she eyed the former demon...Who'd waited in the room...Uncertain what to do or where to go...At least until Buffy returned...Or didn't...

Where did she go?...

Ummn?...Well, if you'd summon D'Hoffryn...Halfreck noted brightly...

And maybe ask him to restore me...As a wish...

"I could..."

Tara spied D'Hoffryn's marked map on the floor...

Come on...she told the retired "justice" demon...

"Me...?"

Now wait a mo...the restored human raised a hand...Free and in control of her own destiny once more...As she reminded the Wiccan...

"Do you want a chance to be restored?...Or do you want to go looking for a homeless shelter?..."

Tara eyed her...

Ummn...

No signs of pursuit are seen...As their boat moves silently out into the lake...

Fryn and his gang must be a bit rocked as yet...But we'd do best to make for the opposite

shore...Spike notes...

Buffy nods...Looking at him as he rows...

Oddly familiar...Being out on a lake in a boat with him...

"Well...?" he eyes her...

"Well..." she looks at him...

"Say..." she asks brightly... "What's with all the reeds?..."

The boat was loaded with them...

He pulls in the oars...And frowns at her...

"They're for the ceremony...A little kindness..."

She stares...

"Smoke inhalation's a lot less painful than burning to death..." he notes...

Oh...

"I couldn't let you kill yourself, Will..." Buffy looks at him...

"Really?...Thanks...Afraid you're 122 years too late..." he replies...

I know...she looks away...And back...

I had to see you Will...I had...Something to tell you...she begins...

He blinks...You had...?

"What?...Did I bloody well leave the lights on at the damned shop...?"

"Giles and Tara are sure...The baby is human..." she pauses...

He stares at her...Carefully...

So...she continues...

Here...She hands him a document...

"What's this?..." he stares at the certificate...

Marriage certificate...she eyes him...

You sign here...she points...

It's already notarized...

Angel has...Connections in LA now...Had to to help keep his business dealings legit...

And explain dear Connor...

He was a bit...Well, a lot...Puzzled...When I called him and said we needed this immediately...But realized he owes me...And had Wesley fax this...

Though I decided not to tell him it wasn't going to be Xander and Anya on the signature lines...

"Why...?"

Well...You know how Angel feels about you...she grins...

He frowns...

"No...Why are you doing this?..."

"I'm keeping the baby, Will...And I want to marry the father..."

Believe me, please...she thinks...

Please believe the only lie I'll ever tell you...

"We'll come up with a phony birth certificate for you asap..." she goes on brightly...

"You don't need to do this, Buffy..."

She looks at him in mock shock...

"You don't want to make an honest woman of me, Walthrop?..."

Some Victorian gent you are...

My mom would be very disappointed in you...she grins, pausing...

"I want to marry you, William..."

"Again..." she looks at him...

"You really are...? You're keeping it...?" he stares at her in wonder...

And slowly growing joy...And yet...

She's keeping it...My baby...Our baby...But...I can only sense...A cloudiness...

"We need a ring for me..." she frowns at him...

Hmmn...She broke an ear ring and bent it back into shape around her ring finger...

"With this ring..." she prompts...

"C'mon, Walthrop, you're the Victorian...This should be easy for an English-born nineteenth century gent...Like riding a bike..."

He stares at her...

Almost as if...She were serious...

"With this ring I thee wed...And with all my worldly goods...Such as they are..." he notes ruefully... " I thee endow..."

Nice, she nods...

That's the way to do it...

After all...We're both Victorians...You and I...

"Here's yours..." she holds out the band...

He slowly gives her his hand...She slides the band on his ring finger...

"With this ring I thee wed...And with all my worldly goods...Which aren't too shabby thanks to you..." she grins...

I thee endow...

He stares at her...

Ummn...I may kiss the groom?...she asks...

Buffy...?

She kisses him...

"Looks nice..." she notes...Stroking the band on his finger...

Thank you for keeping it safe, Will...she looks at him

They had reached the opposite shore and were rowing down to a well-lit group of cottages...

Fryn's group must have decided to call it a day...Probably one of the guards is now in the cage...Buffy eyed Spike...

Ummn...he nodded...Looking at his ring a moment...

"Not exactly the kind of ceremony a girl dreams about..." he noted ruefully...

"It was fine for me, William..." she smiled...

I've never been one for big weddings...Remember...?

He nodded...

Yes...I do...he smiled at her...

They were passing by a floating dock...A large cottage near the lakefront, well-lit...

Partygoers calling out to them and the few other boats on the lake...Inviting them in...

"Will...?...Lets go..."

The party, I mean...

"Buffy?...We should be getting you home..."

Please...? she pleaded...

"I...?" he eyed her..."Are you serious?...You want to go over there?..."

Considering you're too cheap to spring for a reception...she smiled at him...You oughta be glad I'm letting you off this easy...

"Well...We should put in, I guess...And it should be safer there with so many people about..."

She nodded...

"C'mon...It'll be fun..."

He turned them towards the dock...

It's almost as if...She'd meant it...

But...She's just being kind...And it's for the baby's sake...If she's telling me the truth...

If she's really keeping our baby...But...

It doesn't matter...It doesn't matter...Lie or truth...

God bless my kind friend, Buffy Summers...

"You've given me hope again, Buffy..." he smiled at me...Helping me onto the dock...

I looked at him...

He didn't believe me...But I didn't expect him to...

I didn't half believe it all myself...

Later...There'd be time to prove myself...To convince him...Later...

One step at a time, you know...

For now...I was a new bride on her long-delayed honeymoon...And a new bride deserved a dance...

Especially given all the trouble I'd had to go to find my missing groom...

And Anya thought she'd had troubles...

It was a pretty big lakefront party...Neighbors from all around the lake in to welcome the start of the summer season...A beautiful night...With a huge moon...

One more couple was no trouble, the host and hostess, a middle-aged couple assured us...

They all welcomed us like old friends...

What a sweet thing...A honeymooning couple on the lake...Brought into their party by a kind Fate...

Will went along...Touched by my "kindness", I think...

And I could see, hard as he tried to hide it...Almost radiant with joy that I had decided to keep our baby...Only...Not sure...It'd seemed so certain to him at the house what I had done...Or intended to do...

He still didn't believe me...Maybe this business was all just my little ploy to preempt his arrangements with Fryn and co...A little guilt resolution...

He was still set on fulfilling the final part of his "deal", I knew...With Fryn...And with me...

Freeing me from my "burden"...

"Actually..." I smiled at our hostess' question...Where were we from?...

We're both transplanted from England...I guess I've just done a better job of losing my accent...

I was much younger than William when I came over...

Sunrise...Part XXV...

I called Giles courtesy of our friends' phone...Willow was already on her way to join me...He'd call and arrange to have her pick us up asap...

No rush, I told him...And she should avoid the landing area where Fryn's group had brought William...

In fact, tell her to head to North Point...We'd row over to meet her there in a little while...

Things looked pretty stable now and it was the closest well-populated spot coming by her way...

And I wanted one more sail with my husband...Before we went home and faced...Whatever fate awaited us...

"Have things gone well...?" Giles asked me hesitantly...

Yes...I told him...

Better than I deserve...

A pause...

"I am happy, Giles..." I whispered...Don't worry...

"Well..." he sighed...Tell William...I will do whatever it takes to help him with the Wolfram-Hart ceremony...

And tell him...

"My blessings and love to you both..."

It would take at least two hours for Willow to drive up to North Point from where she was on the lake road...I explained to Will...So we had a little time...

To party at our "reception"...

Dutiful husband that he was...William was nervous about my joining in the dancing...

Preggers, he noted to our hostess...I frowned at him...Geesch...

What the hell had we just been doing?...

"He thinks I'm walking on eggshells or something..." I noted to the distaff half of one of the younger couples...She nodded...I know what you mean...she sighed...

Was that the way he was going to be from now on?...I groused to him...

Victorian chivalry is all well and good...And who better to appreciate it than a fellow Victorian... but...

Don't cramp my style, Will...I grinned at him...

"She looks just fine..." the hostess smiled at me...

"We'll watch out for her..."

He frowned...

Hmmn...Don't want to get him wondering about...

But we couldn't leave just yet...And if we went outside to wait...He might try to slip away...

And more important...I wanted to dance at my wedding...

I hadn't had the chance in 1880...

"Just a couple, please Will...Then I'll sit...And we'll get headed out to meet Willow...I promise..." I looked at him...

He started to frown...And suddenly...The situation hit us...

"You know..." he grinned at me... "We really should have gotten the number from Giles and

let Willow know ourselves..."

She might gripe a bit but she'll be so pleased to know she was right about us...

"This is all so sudden..."...I quoted, grinning back...

At least I got to ask you one time...he smiled...

"Goin' to the Chapel...And we're...

Gonna get mar...ah..ahried..."

I swung him round...

"...And we'll never be lonely...Again..."

The next choice was his...

"Why do Fools Fall in Love?..."

Naturally...he smiled as I glared...

And smiled back...

We made our goodbyes...Thanking them all...

William easing me into the boat...I continuing to wave at our new friends...

I'd invited them all to Sunnydale to see us at home...He eyed me a little at that...

So...We'd do the outdoor barbeque thing...I noted...

The weather was getting a little rougher as we headed out...William switching to sail at my request...

He watched me, asking if I was ok...Queasy or anything...

I shook my head...I looked around at the sky...Cloudier but still the moon and stars...

Our honeymoon cruise...

He was silent for a bit...

"The baby's..." he paused... "Gone...Isn't she?..."

I...Spike...I looked at him nervously...

He looked back at me...Kindly...No anger in his eyes...

"I wanted her...Anne...I did...But it was too late..." I paused...

We couldn't save her...

A terrible heaviness came into his eyes...

Not anger...Worse...

Resignation...Acceptance...

Anger, I could deal with...Would have welcomed...

"Will...I'm not lying to you...I love you...I want to be with you..."

"Two for two..." he sighed wearily...

My poor girls...he looked down...

Anne and Cicely...

Guess we're not meant to be parents...Cicely...he eyed her...

"Will...Please...I didn't come here to fool you..."

"You meant to be kind...I understand..." he started...Staring over her head at the now threatening sky...

"No!..." I screamed at him...

"I love you!..."

I stood up...Still rather wobbly from my strenuous day...

Lightening flashed...I jumped...

God, I hate lightening...Can't watch it even in the movies...

"Buffy!..." he cried grabbing hold of me as the boat rocked...

Sit!...he commanded...

The clouds opened up on us...The lake was heaving now...Too dark to see the coast ahead...or behind...

I looked around wildly...

Good, I thought irrationally...Good...We'll both die...We'll die together...

And then he'll believe me...He'll know...

Still...If there was any chance...If I could still give him...Give us...Another child...

We'd been cheated twice...It was only fair...And it would be as good a proof as any...

He threw his Slayer's coat over me...I grabbed at an oar...

"Which way...?" I called over the sudden, rising din...

He vaguely pointed left...

Hope vampiral supersenses work under these conditions...

It was hard...Tara thought...As she strode towards the lake...A whining Halfreck beside her...

Hard to remember a time ever in my life when I was this angry...This jealous...

Even at the height of things with Willow...

But then, she or a rival never clunked me one and ran off to win the heart of our mutual interest...

Just got as far as mind control...

And I certainly never thought I'd see the day when I'd be angry enough to risk a transport spell...

She looked out over the storming, foaming lake...Out there, she sensed...A leetle of the edge coming off her anger...

Geesch...

God, much as I want to get my hands on those two little blondies...Don't let them be hurt...

We each pulled at an oar...The water fought us but we are the Summers-Walthrops...And Mother Nature herself takes a back seat to us...

At least when we're trying to save each other...

We cut slowly through the water towards what William was sure was coast...

I looked at him...No anger...Just concern and not a little fear for me...

I remembered...Back in the Lake District...I took him sailing once...

He'd never been before...Never could've afforded to...

But when a gust caught us and turned us over...He pulled me up on the boat...Shaking like a leaf...Thinking he'd lost me...

He was tougher than he looked, I knew then...After all, he'd fought his way through terrible poverty to get to Cambridge...And me...

That was when I decided to try...If he could save me then...Maybe...If we could get far enough away...

Maybe we'd be ok...I'd write Simon, my Watcher, resign, we'd leave...We could do this...

I took him to Henry's little cottage on the lake...And we made love there...

And I asked him to marry me...At three o'clock in the morning...I asked him...

I was an unusual girl even then...

But he took it in stride...And joy...But he wasn't sure...His future was by no means secure...

America, I suggested...A land of opportunity, even...Maybe especially...For young poets...

I'd write Papa...See that he helped William's sister and brother...At least out of my inheritance from Mother...We could do this...

We had to leave before the sunrise, me back to my hotel...Him back to Cambridge...So no one would learn what we'd been up to...

But we saw each other again in London...Another night...That week...

And missed the sunrise that night too...When he accepted my offer...

And I wasted no time in holding him to it...I even had our wedding bands ready...

Inscribed...

Well, I had consulted him...And he liked the final choice...

But after that...Duty came upon me again...And...The fear...

"Buffy!..." Spike screamed at me...

The water was smashing into the boat...Breaking through growing holes in the hull...

I could just make out the shore...God knew how far away...

He grabbed the reeds that should have been used to kill him and tied them around me...No other life preserver...

A wave upturned the sinking boat and we went under...

I felt him grab me as I went down...Too many clothes, in spite of the reeds...

He got my jacket off...The day had finally caught up with me and I could barely struggle to keep my head up in the stormy water...He held me above the waves as best he could...

Not much danger of drowning in his case, thank God...

Something hit me as I put my arm around him...Trying to tell him again...Make him believe...

I went out and felt myself drifting down...But held back...

A bird flew over my head...Crossing the pale moon...I blinked and woke...

I was floating in my reeds in some shallows...No sign of William...

"Will...!" I cried faintly...

"Buffy!..." I heard a cry...

Tara...

She came out into the water to drag me in...

"Where is he?..." I gasped...

Is he dead?...Tell me...I tried to get up...Couldn't...

"I haven't seen him, Buffy..." she looked at me...Trying to get her jacket around me...

Tara...?...I gasped out...

"It's ok..." she smiled at me...

I'll find him...

Other cries now...Vaguely I recognized Willow's and Dawn's voices...

Tara called to them...

I tried to look at Tara...She nodded...

"I called Willow...When I couldn't find you guys and the storm looked so bad..."

Thank you...I eyed her...

"I understand why, Buffy..." she looked back...Using a sweater to prop my head...

"But I didn't say we've settled this...Yet..." she smiled wanly at me...

She looked back where I'd come in...A large board and a small board I saw now turning my head weakly...Set up to mark where I...where we'd landed...

A cross of all things...

"God...He must have pulled you in there...Then maybe tried to find help...And you got caught by the waves and pulled back in..."

He must still be around...I tried to get up...

Lie still...Tara ordered...We'll look for him...

But first lets try to get you indoors and then find Will...

Please...I mumbled...

Please...I looked at her...

"I'll find him...

I love him too, Buffy..." she stared back at me, nodding as she squeezed my hand...

We found his note, fixed to a nail on his makeshift cross...

"Dear Buffy,

I can't thank you enough for your kindness. I will never forget our little "wedding night". And I will continue to hope wherever I end up that one day I'll see you again...As Cicely or Buffy...Or both.

I want to see my babies' faces...And I'm tired...But believe me, sweet pet, I am not angry or upset...It was a sweet lie...The kindest of lies...And I truly do thank you.

May you find the happiness you deserve.

Yours always,

William"

There were two-and-one-half hours left until sunrise...

Sunrise...Part XXVI...Conclusion...

I refused to wait...Either we went to the island now...Or I'd go alone...

"Which one...?" Tara asked...

I stared...And tried to think desperately...

The others...Willow, Dawn, and Halfreck had reached us...

Dawn...Blackmailed Willow into taking her claiming I'd told her the right spot on the lakefront when Willow had come searching for Tara and me...Easier than a location spell and allowing her to stay on the wagon, Dawny had chirped...

The location spell Will had been forced to do in the end when Dawn confessed after they hadn't found us at North Point where Giles had told them we'd be headed...

Willow had seen a number of boats on the lake...Still stormy enough to be dangerous at the time as well as late for that sort of thing...

All heading back up to one island...

They agreed we could head down the lake...If I promised to take it easy...

Sure...

We put in on an island across from the one Willow suspected...It was the one I told them...

Dawn and Halfreck got me to a cottage...Tara and Willow scouting with binoculars...

They got back before I slipped out...

Large group of vamps up on the hill on the center of the island...

They couldn't get close enough to see if Will was there...But it was safe to assume...

"There's a problem, Buffy..." Tara told me...

The place is mystically protected...

Oddly enough by some Orbs of Callos...Willow noted...Just like the four Anya sold the other day...

Very mystical energy-absorbent...

"We can't magics him away...If he's here..."

"Well..." I grinned...

Then I'll do it the old-fashioned way...

William will approve...as an old-fashioned kinda guy at heart...

Like his...Wife...I eyed them...

Ummn...Dawn looked at me...Willow looked at me...Ummn...

Tara frowned a bit...But was not surprised...

She'd kindly omitted the head clubbing from her account of how she and Halfreck and I had come...And gotten separated...

Eyeing the newly human Halfreck carefully...Who got the hint and kept mum...

For my part I'd gone along, realizing Tara was equally anxious to avoid explaining how she and Haly had reached the lake without a car... Extenuating circumstances but still not a good example to set for Willow...

"We reaffirmed our wedding vows last night..." I told them quietly...

Reaffirmed?...Willow looked at me...And the others...

Do we congratulate her?...Or...Get her to a psychiatrist...her look said...

But...Tara stared at me...

I shook my head...

"He didn't believe me...Thought I was trying to be kind...To keep him from completing the ceremony this morning..."

But...I'll convince him later...I told her firmly...For now...Gotta get the hubs home in one piece...

Husband...? Dawn was still trying to grasp it...

"Buffy...There are dozen of them over there..." Tara noted...

"Then we'll wait a few...Most of them will have to leave...The rest will have to take shelter..." I replied...

Sunrise, after all...

While we waited...I told them about our last week in 1880...And what happened...

"And then I asked him to marry me..."

Dawn stared at me...And grinned...

That's my sis...

I asked...Him...I couldn't think clearly...I loved him so...

We spent the night together...

And he left...

Just before...Sunrise...

A romance like that in those days required some skillful maneuvering to avoid scandal and the ruining of one's reputation...I smiled at them...

For the families' sakes if not our own...

And I was leery of the Council...I knew they'd disapprove of my relationship...Hell, they were relentlessly pressing me to give up my family...Move away, under their protection...

I told Simon, my Watcher...That I'd accepted the Council's recommendation to cut all possible family ties...I was going to move away, for my family's sake...He'd hear from me when I was settled...

Two days later, in London...We were together...He accepted my proposal and we were married in a little church that evening in the countryside...No one knowing..."

"Oh, God!..." I cried, covering my face...

"I married him...But after cousin Henry was attacked...I had to stay...My duty..."

"And I couldn't let him stay with me...He'd be the first my enemies hunted for..."

But I didn't know what to do...I couldn't bear to send him away...

So...Halfreck did it for me...

"And..." I looked at Halfreck... "Then you came in...To "help" me deal with my little William problem..."

Taking my form...To say to him the one thing I knew would drive him away...The one thing I could never have said...

Simplifying my life...Wasn't that it?...

Twice...I noted...And waiting a century for the second call...

What enthusiasm for the job...Admirable...

And this time, you've done it right...Made sure of him...Made sure of me...

He wouldn't believe me...I looked desperately at the others...

Despair flooding me...The despair I felt in 1880 when I saw him run from the house from an upstairs window in the room where I had hidden to fight with my emotions...Giving Halfreck her chance, even if I hadn't fully known what she was up to...

The despair and shame I felt when I saw his dead body lying in the morgue with Drusilla's marks on him...

"He's gone...He's gone to die...And I've lost him again...For good this time..."

Buffy...Willow tried to calm me...

"We're going to get him..."

"Well, if not...It's probably for the best, Buffy..." Halfreck noted solemnly...

Foolishly...

Tara and Willow glaring at her...But her eyes were on me...

And she saw the look on my Slayer's face...As I got up and came quietly over to our new addition to the human family...

Buffy...Dawn eyed me...

Willow looked at Tara...

I was over her in a moment...

"You killed my husband!...You killed my baby!..."

Buffy!...Tara called...

"Buffy...She's human now..." Willow called...

They came over to us...I shoved them off...

No...Please...Halfreck pleaded...

It was my duty...I was helping you...

"I didn't kill your baby..." she pointed out...

The first was an accident...The other was your decision...

I paused...

Buffy...Willow called to me...

My old friend...I eyed dear Haly...

Cicely...Willow tried again...

"Don't do this...You have more important matters...William needs you..."

I stared at her...

"I did want to save him!...He'd have been killed if he stayed with me..."

And he was killed...Oh, God...

A simple life again...My wish...And that's what I got...

I began to calm, staring at the wall...

Dawny hugged me...Buffy...She stroked me...

Killed...I murmured...And condemned...I looked up at Tara...

And died thinking...Knowing...I'd betrayed him...I dropped my head into my hands...

Tara came over and stroked my hair...

"Buffy..." she paused...

"Cicely..."

I lifted my head and stared at her...

"Why didn't I know him?...Help him before...?"

Tara sighed...

"Somehow..." she looked at me...

"Somehow you came back...To find him...And help him..."

"And did I try to find him?...To help him when I had the chance?..."

"You're here now, Buffy..." Dawn noted...Looking at Tara...

"You're here to save him...Now..."

Tara knelt beside me...

My husband's...Murderess?...

No...

Companion?...Mistress...?

No...Not Tara...Not sweet Dru...

The young lady in terrible difficulty my dear husband had stopped to help...And, I'm sure of it...Free...

Doing what she could for the kind gentleman who'd eased her suffering, saved her soul...And with whom she naturally couldn't help falling in love with in the normal way of any shy, frightened young girl trapped in a horrible situation...

Just as she'd fallen for our gentle and kind Willow...

"You didn't know...These things, oh..." Tara paused "I'm no expert on reincarnation...But I do know from personal experience that you don't come back with a full memory and a list of things to do to set your past right..."

It all had to come back to you at its own pace...she noted gently...

As with me...

That's why I went for Angel...I stared at her...

I was looking for a vampire...With a human soul trapped inside with the demon...He was looking for another Darla...

He had the soul, I had the blonde hair...

New meaning to the term... "star-crossed lovers"...

"It's not over yet..." Tara pointed out... "We can still try..."

But we don't even know where he is over there...If he really is there?...I looked at her...

"Tara?..." I took her arm... "Dru?...You could find him for me?...Make sure he's over there and where...Please..."

"I don't know if I can, Buffy...I haven't got anything of his to use...And that place is protected..."

"I know you love him, too...Help me..."

Tara...? Willow looked at her...

"We may not be able to find Will over there..."

But we can rule out that he's anywhere else...And see if his traces lead to the island...

"And we do have some things of his...The letter and cross he left for Buffy..." she paused...

And smiled at me...

And best of all...His wife...

Tara and Willow together probed the area around the island...

He was definitely on that one...And some of the vamps were now clearly pulling out...

We rowed quietly across...One benefit of Fryn's mystic energy-drainer...His vamps could not make use of their heightened senses while they were in the vicinity...We went undetected...

An abandoned shack just in the forest off the beach gave us a little shelter...And a chance to take stock...

Dawn and Willow headed out to recheck the central hill with Willow's binoculars...Maybe they'd catch a glimpse of him...At least see if the vamps on the hill were pulling out as yet...

Barely an hour left now...We'd have to find him or go up that hill blind soon...

I thought a moment and gave Tara Halfreck's pendant from my pocket...

Maybe...It could cut through the mystic dampeners...

"I think I can use it..." Tara nodded...Just a moment...

"My pendant...!" Halfreck grabbed at it and knocked it to the ground, smashing it...

She stared in horror...

I however...

Again dear old Haly had put her oar in to keep William and me apart...

Even if it was accidental...

I'd had enough of my "guardian demon"...

My one chance to find Will quickly...

"I'm going to kill you for this, Halfreck!..." I told her...

You...Murdered...My William and you're going to die for it...My voice took on an accent without my even realizing it...

"Cicely..." Halfreck gasped in horror...As I held her...

Tara tried to stop me...I threw her back...

She was gurgling now...Just like any mere human...I choked harder...

I understood...I told my old friend...she was still coping with the shock of permanent Humanity...

But I couldn't do that, I told her...Condemn my old friend to mortal suffering?...

I couldn't be so cruel...

"Buffy...!" Tara cried...But she couldn't use magics here...

She ran at me and I threw her back again...Keeping my hold on dear old Haly...Whose eyes were now turning in her head...

I held the former demon in midair...Releasing just a little...

To let her hear me pass my sentence...On my "justice" demon...

"You condemned William...I don't blame Dru...You sent him out...You..."

Halfreck gasped...

Please...I'm human now, Buffy...You can't..." Halfreck pleaded...Choking in my grip...

"No, Tara!..." I threw Tara back as she tried again to pull the girl away...Knocking her flat and unconscious this time...

Halfreck twisted in terror...I having again relaxed my grip a hair and set her down while pushing Tara back...

My...Old...Friend...I held her tighter...

Always...There...For me...I lifted the former demon...

"You were the one with the choice, Buffy..." the frightened girl pleaded...

"I was try...to...Ulp..." Halfreck was strangling now...

"Doing...my...job..."

Like you...Had my...Duty...

Buffy!..." Dawn's voice...From outside...

Duty...

I stared at Halfreck...And lowered her gently...

"We've found him!...I think..."

"We've found him!..." she shouted...

"Buffy...?...Where are you?...We need you..."

Duty...

Buffy blinked at Halfreck and released her, letting her fall to the floor...

Halfreck gasped...And crawled to the door, shoving it open...

"Where is he?..." Buffy looked out at Dawn, with Willow and Fryn beside her...

Willow triumphantly holding a sharp stick to his throat...

"They were leaving the hill...He was one of the last...We..." she grinned at Dawny...

I nodded...

Dawn stared at the crawling, gasping Halfreck...

Willow ran to Tara...Glaring at Halfreck...

It wasn't her, Will...Buffy told her quietly...

Willow stared back at her...

Buffy...?

Willow and Dawn were staring at me...

"Where is he?..." I asked Dawn...In a voice that she'd never heard from me before...

A coldly terrifying...Cicely...

He...He's up the hill there...

"This one can show you the way..." Dawn noted Fryn...

Is she speaking with an English accent...? she hissed to Willow...

I dragged the little vampire off and up the hill...

Moving too fast for Dawn to keep up...

Willow still in shock as she tended poor Tara...

But then, Miss Maclauy is lucky to be alive...As is Halfreck...

I...both Cicely and Buffy...am a jealous woman...

And I've waited too long to share William now...

I dragged Willow's prisoner in tow, presenting good ole Mr. Pointy to the latest vamp "king"'s throat...

Music was playing in the background...From hidden speakers somewhere...

Lyrics and Music

"The sun, whose rays

Are all ablaze

With ever-living glor-y..."

The dawn was being to show...

"Take me to my husband..!" I screamed at Fryn...

Fryn looked at me in terror...As much of me as the rising sun...

And confusion...Husband?...Slayer?...

"Does not deny His majesty- He scorns to tell a story!

He don't exclaim, "I blush for shame, So kindly be in-dulgent."

But, fierce and bold, In fiery gold, He glories effulgent! "

Effulgent?...I thought...

"William...Now..." I said coldly, calming...

Oh...Fryn nodded...And guided me to a trail leading to two sheer tall stone pillars...With a platform suspended between them...About 50 feet above us...And a narrow stretch of rock climbing to within ten feet of the platform

The ladder...is gone...Fryn nervously explained...Taken by his men...

The music...? I asked Fryn as it continued...

William's choice, right?...

He nodded...I sighed, almost smiling at him...

God, sweetheart...I truly love you...In life and in death...

But I still do hate that poem...

At a small ledge before the final path up to the stone pillars, she paused with the little Fryn...

World conquest clearly losing its savor for him...

The cries of Dawn and Willow for her to wait, far below...

"He...He's chained up there..." Fryn pointed...Desperately trying to catch a breath...

He did it himself...Fryn waved his hands...Surrendered himself to us...He could've escaped with you...

"I'll never be able to get him down from there...In time..." Buffy looked up at the pillars...

She shook the little vampire...

"Is there...Anything here...A shed, a blanket...?"

"I don't know...I don't have anything but my clothes...Take my jacket..." Fryn told her...

Nothing...she murmured...There's nothing...

Nothing I can do for him...Isn't that what I said?...

As Buffy...And as Cicely...

Too late, it's too late...

"Don't...Slayer...Please..." the little vamp looked at her in terror...

I didn't do anything...He ..did this...Himself...

She stared at him...

He did this...For me...To spare me...I thought, staring at Fryn...

I looked at my hands...Hearing Dawn and Willow call from below...

And saw my ring...My renewed promise never to abandon him...Never to leave him as long he stayed faithful to me...

Why had I come back...?

To bring my beloved husband home safe...

The opening bars of "Cavalleria Rusticana" played gently in the air...Courtesy of Fryn's stereo...

Intermezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana..."(go down page to Mascagni links, select Intermezzo, minimize after music starts)

The sky was just starting to pink in the lower regions...

Don't be afraid...I stared at Fryn...

"I won't kill you..."

You're going to help me now...

He looked at me...Slayer?...

Halfway up the hill, Tara spotted Fryn hastily descending...And harshly commanded him to stop...

To Willow's surprise he came over quietly...With a note...

Fryn handed her the note gingerly...Clearly in terror of the coming dawn...

Willow stared at the note...She looked at Tara...Dawn stared at both...

Willow...?

And in a daze, began reading aloud...

"It is with the greatest joy that Miss Buffy Anne Summers of Sunnydale, California announces her wedding to Mr. William Soames Walthrop of Brusset, England...After a long engagement..."

Willow looked at the little vampire...A faint smell of blood...

Above them the music was building in intensity...

Oh...God...Oh God...Willow stared at Tara...Dawn...

"Where are they?..." Tara shook the little Fryn...

Who pointed...Up...

She released him and he fled for the shelter of the woods below...

My God...The thought struck him as he raced along...

I've won...

Well...until the next Slayer comes...

A few more minutes...Spike looked up at the clouds, now showing wide streaks of pink...

And ...My first sunrise in 122 years...

The music was soaring to its climax...

"William!..." A faint cry...Growing louder...

"William!..." she clambered up over the rocks near him...

"It's too late Buffy!" ..he looked down at her...Waving his chained hands...

You'd never be able to get me to shelter in time...

She stared at him...Shaking...

She was pale as a ghost...he noted...

"I know that William..." she paused...

It's kind of you...he looked at her...Thank you...

Being here to say goodbye...

"Goodbye?..." she stood, blinking at him...

"No..."

"Never...Again..."

He saw her put a hand to her face...She was trembling...

"Well...Maybe...If you'll allow it..." he smiled gently...

We'll see each other someday...In the afterworld...

"You didn't believe me?...Don't you forgive me?..." she looked at him, pleading...

She was holding on to the pillar by his side..

.

"Nothing to forgive, Buffy..."

But...If it helps...he smiled...

"You already know I do...And for believing...Well...You were kind to do it..."

She swayed, standing near one pillar and grabbing on to it...

"Do you love me?..."

"Yes...Slayer, I can't help myself...Believe me I wish I..."

He stopped...And grinned...No...

"No, I don't wish I didn't..."

Faint cries from down the hill suggested Dawn, Tara, and Willow were struggling up as fast as they could...

She struggled up the sheer pillar to the platform where he stood, stumbled, and grabbed him...He could see now how weak she was...He called to her and she collapsed against his side...He moved his chained arms as best he could to reach her...Lift her...

"Buffy?..."

He felt the fresh blood streaming from her scars...The old bite scars Angel...And Dracula...Had left...Saw it on his hands...Shaking...

"Buffy, what have you done...?" he cried...

"You love me...You still love me ...You love me...You love me..." Buffy cried, sobbing...

"Oh, Will...I wasn't lying...I wasn't...Being kind..."

I love you...I am your wife...

If you'll let me be...

She sagged as he tried to hold her...

"What have you done?...You little fool!..." he cried...

It's too late for me, too...William...she told him...

"Take me with you..." she begged him...Don't let my demon have me...

Tell me you love me...Us...Still...

"No...Buffy, go down to Willow...Let her help you..."

All she can do is stake me, now...Buffy smiled up at him...

"And I'd never make it down in any case..."

She looked at his stricken face...Pleading now...

"Tell me, Will...Please...You always were the kind one in this relationship..."

"I know I'm a century late...But I did finally come for you..." she smiled wanly...

"I love you...Buffy...I always loved you Cicely..."

There's the sun...Look...she pointed feebly...At the clouds, bright now with pink and gold...

And the sliver of brilliant white licking them...

"We've never seen a sunrise together..." she hugged him...

We missed it back in London...I had to leave so early that day...

She looked up at him...

"We were cheated back then, Will...But now...At last..."

The demon surged desperately up in her...He could sense it now as well...

Poor thing...poor evil thing, she smiled at William...Hanging on desperately...

Seems almost cruel to do this to her...

"She's waited so long for this..."

"Buffy, Buffy..." he whispered...

Don't look at her...she murmured...

Just hold me...And tell me what you see...

I'll still be here...I won't go without you...I'll listen...And then...We'll go together...Home together...Husband and wife...The way we were meant to be...

"We'll never be alone again, William..."

"And I finally save the one I love..." she smiled at him...

Sorry to take so long...she murmured...

He held her as she died and the demon struggled in his grip...Battling her as well, he sensed...

He looked up at the sky as the flames began to sear and the demon screamed...Its scream

merging with Dawn and Willow's as they reached the ledge...

Willow holding back the screaming Dawn...Who tried to run to the burning pyre...Tara rushing up...Dawn desperately turned to her...Tara looked up to the burning pyre...

"It's mystically protected..." Willow shook her head... "We can't put it out..."

"Buffy!...Buffy!..." Dawn screamed, sobbing...Tara pulling her back..."We can't help them now Dawn...!"

William gently caressed the screaming demon in his grip...Who for one last moment quieted...The soul winning out for one last moment...

"Oh...Buffy...the sky...I'd forgotten...the sky...Look..Darling...Look..."

Sunrise...


End file.
